


Mutual Feelings

by Firecadet



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-12 06:42:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 34
Words: 77,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5656357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firecadet/pseuds/Firecadet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a mission nearly goes tragically wrong during the last weeks of the Clone Wars, Anakin and Ahsoka discover that they mean more to each other than just Master and Padawan. Their discovery is set against the dying spasms of a galactic war, and amidst the machinations of Chancellor Palpatine.</p><p>The story starts just before a fairly AU episode III: with some references to a historical Anidala relationship, along with Ahsoka having remained a part of the Jedi Order after her trial.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A stressful day of action

**The Clone Wars, Day 1088, Teiron System, Outer Rim.**

Sometimes, Anakin Skywalker thought to himself, being a Jedi causes you nothing but trouble.

"They're getting away!" Ahsoka yelled at her master, vaulting a parked ground car with the force, before dropping into a combat roll as she landed, not losing any speed or ground, as they chased a small group of battle droids, carrying with them an item only officially termed "The McGuffin".

"I've sent Rex and a team around to cut them off." Anakin replied, pointedly using his headset, before making his own flip over the ground car, which had large amounts of damage to it from the magnaguard that was leading the group they were pursuing. "They can't get off this road until the next intersection, and that's a good mile away."

Roughly one hundred yards up the road, around a parked haulage speeder, things went to pot faster than a jawa moving in on an unprotected droid.

Ahsoka was in the lead, roughly twenty yards ahead of her master, and disappeared around the side of the speeder.

In front of her, she found a two rank firing line of B1 battle droids, no more sophisticated than the units that had been used on Naboo, more than a decade earlier.

A moment after she came into their line of sight, they fired a perfectly synchronized volley at her. The total difference in travel time between the twenty blaster bolts was perhaps one one-thousandth of a second.

She threw herself to the ground, her heart pounding as they all scorched through the space where her torso had been just a heartbeat earlier. She couldn't have even attempted to block them all, even with both of her lightsabers.

Before she could rise, an electrostaff pressed onto the back of her head, and she looked around, seeing the duranium plated feet of a Magnaguard.

A pair of binders clattered to the ground next to her head.

"Put Them On Your Wrists, Behind Your Back." It instructed her, watching with satisfaction as she reached out for the devices with her left hand, before slotting one of the loops over her right wrist as her Master came sailing over the speeder truck.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

As his padawan vanished from view, Anakin felt a sudden pulse of panic from her, then pain, in a dozen places, from slightly raised areas of the tarmac surface in use on Teiron.

Then he felt cold, absolute terror.

Drawing on the force, he hurled himself over the speeder.

The first thing he saw was Ahsoka, an electro-staff resting on her third lekku, preventing her from rising, or doing anything to defend herself.

Then he saw the restraints she was fastening around her own wrists.

He landed in the middle of the double rank of battle droids, sending a shockwave out through the force.

Most of them went down. A few of them were still moving, and he laid into them with both the force and his lightsaber, downing the remainder in a few seconds, before suddenly being brought up short.

"Jedi Skywalker." He heard from the magnaguard. "If You Do Not Cease Combat, Your Padawan Will Die."

Looking around, he saw that she was still in the same position, her hands now secured behind her back, held straight out behind her, with her wrists pinned six inches apart, and he felt a pulse of hatred for the droid, which had clearly forced her to restrain herself.

In the moment it would take him to draw on the force, and disable the droid, it would have enough time for one movement. Ahsoka would have her head crushed for certain, even if she drew on the force herself, assuming that the binders were not the nearly omnipresent force-blocking binders that every bounty hunter, gangster, pirate and terrorist cell seemed to have access to now.

Then the droid tossed a second pair of binders at his feet.

"Secure Your Hands Behind Your Back." It instructed him.

Hating himself for doing it, he knelt down to comply.

Then he smiled.

On the droid's chest armour, he could see a single, almost invisible, red dot, overlaying a red light source on its chest. The dot was visible for just a moment.

Then, the droid's chest-casing exploded.

"Sorry, Commander." Rex said. "We ran into an obstinate bunch of SBD units. Took us a couple of minutes to get past them."

Anakin almost collapsed with relief. He'd been very willing to surrender himself to the magnaguard, in the hope he could save his padawan from death.

"Thank you, Rex. I owe your team a few mugs of black ale." He replied, crossing over to his padawan, who was still laying face-down on the floor, trying to twist back onto her front, which was simply resulting in her lying, wriggling against the cuffs locked around her wrists.

"Skyguy..." She said, her voice distorted by the pressure on her diaphragm and ribcage. "Help?"

Without a word, Anakin bent down, once again putting the fact his padawan was young, female and attractive out of his conscious mind.

It was getting to be a struggle, since he'd stopped dating Padmé six months before. It'd never been serious between him and Padme. Their relationship had been a way of letting off mutual steam with someone who could be trusted, and who knew it wasn't serious. The sex had been good, though.

Without touching skin, he examined her restraints, each loop of which seemed to be one seamless loop of phrik, connected together by a simple hinge, a centimetre or so thick, and sitting very close to her smooth, orange skin, to the extent that he doubted it would be easy to slide a sheet of flimsi between the bands of metal and her wrists without causing her discomfort.

A quick probe with the Force revealed that the locking mechanism was a series of loops, though which a tensioned wire had fed itself when the cuffs closed. The metal had then fused to the loops and the inside of the shackles themselves. The process had effectively turned each of the bands into one ring of metal. From the structure of them, he would be very unlikely to force open one of the cuffs without injuring his padawan, at least with the tools he had access to in his belt-kit. His lightsaber would be all but useless, even if there wouldn't be a risk of burning his padawan.

"Snips, I'm not going to be able to get them off here." He told her, his tone reassuring, as he helped her into a seated position. The restraint device was wide enough not to bite into her bare wrists, perhaps two inches, with smoothed edges. A close examination revealed that there was no mechanism for rotation of her wrists in relation to each other, just a rigid duranium bar connecting the two restraint loops. She was sitting with a straight back, and her arms in the most neutral position possible.

"Can you feel anything?" He asked.

"No." His padawan responded, understanding the question instantly, her voice quiet and almost as terrified as her extremely wide eyes and muted force presence.

"It's ok, Snips." He told her, reassuringly. "You haven't been cut off from the Force forever. The cuffs are cutting you off from the Force, is all. Once I get them off of you, you'll be fine."

She whimpered slightly, before nodding, and trying to huddle closer to her master.

"Let's get you out of here." He said, keeping his voice kind and level.

Carefully, he scooped the helpless ( _don't even think about it, Anakin_ ) Togruta off of the tarmac, before slinging her over one shoulder, trying to ignore the two pressure areas on his back, as he gently and in a most gentlemanly fashion carried her to the GAR dropship that Rex had efficiently summoned to their location, followed by Rex and the rest of his team, who had finished gathering up the McGuffin, and secured it in a transport crate.

Once the two were inside the dropship, he placed her on the medical gurney, gently strapping her down for safety. He rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder briefly before taking his own seat, and strapping in, before the transport took off. The LAAT was heading straight for the main hanger of Sullust, his flagship, a Venator lass star destroyer. He'd named the ship in memory of the battle in which the first ship he commanded had been destroyed.

Ten minutes later, they were aboard the Sullust.

Rather than rushing Ahsoka to the repair bay or something similar, Anakin simply stepped out onto the flight deck, before using the Force to make his voice carry.

"ARTOO!" He yelled, his voice not echoing, or blowing out eardrums, or anything fancy that a Jedi could have done, but simply being clearly audible the entire length of the hanger.

He was answered by an audible trilling from perhaps fifty yards away.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Audio_Sensor_detect_name=true

Speaker=Master_Anakin

Master_Anakin=authorised_user

Reply_ =play

Reply_ =played

Activate_treads=true

Activate_pathfinding_software=true

=Shuttle

Clone_annoyances_present=0

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin watched as Artoo negotiated his way through the crowd of clones, wearing the various tabards of their precise MOS, from starfighter mechanic to deck-plate maintenance. There were none of the particular clones (usually those who had attempted to memory-wipe him) around, so he traversed the crowd without running over a foot or bowling someone over, and trundled up to the button of the shuttle boarding ramp.

"Booweep?" He asked.

"Artoo, I need you to take a look at Ahsoka for me."

"Bloo Bop Poloo Key?"

"Yes, I know you aren't a medical droid. She doesn't need medical treatment."

"Bow kloo." Artoo replied, cruising up the ramp into the shuttle.

Anakin watched Artoo roll up the ramp, and was amused by the way that Nix, one of the torrent squad troopers, flinched away from the droid slightly, provoking a burble of amusement. Trying to put a card table on Artoo's dome had ended badly for the off-duty clone, after having his foot rolled over by the droid, and Artoo appeared to be holding a grudge.

Then he followed the droid back into the shuttle, to see what could be done.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Clone_annoyances_present=1

Clone_annoyance=367

Clone_annoyance_367=carrying_valuable_object

Course_of_action?

No_Action =true

Clone_annoyance_367=flinching

Play_Snigger

Snigger=played

Visual =Ahsoka_Tano

Ahsoka_Tano=Friend,.Oil_baths,.Polishing

Ahsoka_Tano=In_need

Action=Help_Ahsoka_Tano

Problem=Handcuffs

Tool=plasma_torch

Use=hinge

plasma_torch=active

Script_cut_attachment_points=active

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin almost moved to stop Artoo when the droid produced his plasma torch, but he ultimately decided to watch. Carefully, using a manipulator arm, Artoo positioned her arms above her back, before setting to work. The droid began carefully, and extremely slowly slicing through the points at which the phrik crosspiece attached to the cuffs themselves. He was cutting as slowly as possible in order to vaporise all of the fragments that were produced from the cutting process. Artoo was trying to avoid any red hot pieces of metal landing on the small togruta's bare back. Although the metal was extremely resistant to heat, he was eventually able to slice through the centimetre thick bar in about ten minutes.

Ahsoka groaned slightly, as she was able to separate and rotate her arms for what felt like the first time in hours.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Friend_Ahsoka_Tano=free

Artoo_help=true

Play_Happy_sound=active

spin_activate=true

Spin

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka gratefully clambered off of the gurney, noticing the way the droid was showing his own pleasure at her release, spinning and twittering with happiness. Groaning slightly, the muscles in her shoulders throbbing from the very limited movement she'd had since being restrained perhaps half an hour before, she reached out, and patted him on the dome, feeling him respond slightly to the contact. She still couldn't feel the force, but it was a start she was very pleased about. Being that helpless was a scenario that gave her more than a few nightmares, probably from the sheer number of times she'd been kidnapped, imprisoned, enslaved, or otherwise abused for some reason. At least now she could actually do things, like unstrap herself from the gurney, and head for the exit ramp.

Anakin gently put a large, firm, slightly callused left hand on her shoulder, and for just a moment, she though he was finally about to do something she'd dreamt about him doing for over a year, she turned slightly, hoping, making her best eyes at him.

Instead, he just squeezed her shoulder, before stepping away, leaving her gazing after him.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A few hours later, Anakin was in the ship's cantina, standing rounds for Team Torrent, as the clone unit had christened themselves, when Ahsoka came in, wearing the type of flattering, form fitting garment that Padmé had referred to as 'Hunting Clothes'. The garments showed off the smooth muscle, not concentrated enough to make her look anything other than stunning when combined with a sinuous waistline and perfectly proportioned bust. Her dress even blended smoothly with her skin and montrals, drawing out the patterns on both and making them seem to glow slightly.

Without even glancing at the rest of the clones, she moved in on her suddenly very nervous Jedi Master, who knew he'd had a couple to drink more than was wise when sharing his quarters with an impressionable padawan.

"Master." She said, without a word of any kind to try and tempt him in front of the clones.

"Snips." He replied.

"Could we talk, privately?" She asked, her voice husking slightly.

"Not a good idea, Snips." He replied, using a calming exercise to firmly rein in his libido.

She brushed against him slightly as she slipped into the booth, quickly taking control of a spare mug, and pouring herself a drink from the communal jug of Ne'tra gal, or black ale. The drink was the preferred beverage choice of nearly every drinking clone, which was pretty much the entire strength of the GAR.

Then the talk turned to other things.

Although she'd only consumed two pints of black ale, Ahsoka preceded Anakin from the ship's cantina. Anakin followed her a quarter of an hour later. He'd had seven pints of black ale. Ahsoka, he suspected, given her low tolerance for alcohol, would be either snoring like a wookiee, or curled up with a cuddly wampa toy he pretended not to know about.

The trip through the corridors back to his quarters gave Anakin some time to think. He knew Ahsoka was at least physically attracted to him. That wasn't all that unusual. He knew from Padmé that some of their talks had been about the clones, and exactly how they looked in the shower. He even remembered some separatist boy who'd tried to convince Ahsoka to run away with him, presumably for the purpose of eloping.

Stepping into their shared quarters, Anakin sent a quick pulse through the force. In context, it simply told Ahsoka he was back, and that she should put some clothes on if she wasn't wearing any.

The togruta came out of her bedroom a few moments later. She has dressed somewhere between the rebellious teen she'd been shortly after being assigned to him, and her usual manner of dress. The togruta was wearing a blue sports bra, through which a suddenly extremely nervous Anakin could see virtually every detail. On the lower half of her body, Ahsoka had gone for what looked like a pair of blue denim shorts, coming down to the top of her thigh. She'd topped off an assembly that both showed flesh and remained entirely legal with a pair of long sports socks, coming up to her knees.

"Snips?" Anakin asked?

"Errrm..." Ahsoka stuttered. It'd been easier to plan in her mirror. "What, Skyguy?"

"Why are you dressed like that?" Anakin asked.

"What do you mean?" Ahsoka demanded.

"Is there a reason you've dressed up like that?"

Ahsoka, Anakin realised, had been prowling closer while they were talking. He realised largely because she'd come to a range which allowed her to wrap her arms around his neck, and pull herself up to his face, before kissing him.

Anakin's conscious mind didn't really know how to react as his padawan, a person he'd sworn to protect and teach, glued herself to his lips. His body, on the other hand, pulled her closer, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. The sensation of a small, lithe female pressing herself close activated routines from the caveman part of his mind. With his inhibitions lowered by the alcohol he'd drunk, Anakin didn't really think about the consequences.

Without really thinking, one hand looped up under Ahsoka's sports bra, while the other fumbled with her shorts.

Ahsoka's hands were also busy with his tunic and leggings, as they staggered towards the bed, leaving a trail of clothing. The side of the bed took Ahsoka's legs out from underneath her, and they landed together.

Anakin nibbled at the side of her neck, as their bodies came together, followed by their presences. He'd never felt anything like it. And then there was no more time for thought, and instinct overtook both the human and togruta.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1): She might have suspected commissioning executives, except for the fact that it was fairly unlikely that she was living in a holodrama without knowing it. Instead, she just blamed the universe.


	2. The Morning After

_I think I had a bit too much to drink last night._  Anakin realised, waking up with the traditional splitting headache, dry mouth, and photosensitivity that were the usual symptoms of extreme dehydration caused by ethanol ingestion.

Then, as he tried to sit upright, and swing himself out of bed, he realised that there was another person in his bed. That there was a small, warm, very female body nestled close to his, with an arm looped around his shoulders.

 _Padmé?_ He thought, remembering the last night they had together, after accepting that they were fellow travellers, but that their ways were slowly drawing them apart.

He turned his head. Instead of the brown, shoulder-length hair of his former girlfriend, he was confronted by a pair of…  _Montrals…? Oh, Sithspit._

 _Ok. Right. This isn’t good._ He was the same bed as his Padawan. They were both naked, and were cuddled together. And he felt like he’d had an extended night in.

 _Bloah. I really did have too much to drink last night, if I thought that was a good idea._  He had very, very few doubts as to any form of innocent explanation, particularly when she snuggled closer to him. After a few moments, she began woozily rubbing the side of her hips against the side of his for a few seconds. She'd been giving him somewhat transparent interest signals since she had been old enough to feel attracted to him. She’d been doing so even before he stopped seeing Padmé, although he suspected she'd have never even considered acting on it.

With a certain amount of care, he managed to detach his padawan without waking her up. Once he was out of bed, he hurried through to the refresher, knowing he needed to excrete the contents of his aching bladder without any delay.

When he got back into the room, Ahsoka had taken full possession of the duvet. She’d curled herself around it, showing far too much skin for her Master's peace of mind. _And, admit it, Anakin. You want to go and wake her up with a kiss, don’t you?_ He pushed away that voice in his head, before crossing to the small kitchenette in the corner of his suite.

Delving into the cupboards, Anakin extracted a large glass, filling it with water, before gulping down the nearly ice cold liquid. After a few moments, he extracted a pair of alcohol safe painkillers from his box in the medicine cabinet. Weighing them in his hand, considered them briefly before downing them with the aid of a glass of water.

Although most human medications weren’t unsafe for Togruta, there was always a risk of an allergic reaction, which was why they kept their medications separate. Ahsoka had an orange box, while Anakin used a pink box to keep his painkillers and the like in.

Then he clambered into the refresher room's shower, trying to wash away the various aromas and sensations before they continued to torment him.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 _Huntress…_  Ahsoka groaned internally, her head throbbing like a set of tribal drums.  _I need to stop trying to keep up with Rex and the team._

Then she stirred, looking about herself.  _These aren't my quarters._  Twisting her head, she quickly located the door that led to her own bedchamber. _Why am I in…?_  She wondered, briefly, looking around to confirm her location.

_I'm in Skyguy's bed. Ok…_

She looked down at herself, realising that she was wrapped around a duvet.  _Did he take my bed last night, after pouring me into his?_ Her eyes caught something on the floor.  _Why are my clothes mixed up with… my clothes are mixed up with Skyguy's. And_  she glanced down herself.  _I am definitely naked. Ok. Right… erm…_

Then Anakin staggered out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, but otherwise naked, and still dripping with water.

"Err… Master?" She asked. "What did we do last night?"

He looked at her, then hesitated slightly before responding. "We had a bit of a busy night, Snips."

"Did we…" She broke off, head throbbing suddenly.

"Here." Anakin said, glad to have an excuse to steer Ahsoka away from those sorts of matters. He quickly levitated a glass over to the sink, before activating the tap, and filling it with the thing Ahsoka most wanted to see at the moment: ice cold water. He then reached into the cupboard, and extracted a pair of pills from her medicine box. With a smile, he placed the pills on a small plate, before placing the plate and the glass of water on a little tray.

She tried to reach out for it in the Force, only to realise something. She couldn't touch it. Looking down, she realised the Force-blocking restraints she'd been forced to lock herself in the day before were still around her wrists, even if they were no longer securing her in a very uncomfortable position.

Anakin looked a bit guilty when she held up her wrists, before the tray arrived next to her. Anakin watched as she took the glass and pills, before quickly downing the pills, and chasing them with the painfully cold water.

"They're designed to be hard to get off, Snips." He told her, his voice reassuring, glad of any excuse to change the subject. "If I use my lightsaber, I'll end up hurting you as well." He’d crossed the room, and was standing next to the bed. _What I really want him to do is…_ Ahsoka thought, before realising that all of her private fantasies had been superseded by reality.

Then he took a grip on the restraints briefly, focusing on them through the Force, while trying to block out of his mind the fact that they were secured around Ahsoka's wrists, and that at least a small part of him wanted to get out the universal engineering repair kit  **(1)**  and attach his padawan to the bed by them.

"Ugh." He groaned, after a moment. "It'll take Master Windu to find the shatterpoint on these things…” _Oh, Kriff._

Looking at the restraints, he'd suddenly realised something. _They’re made from one piece of forged metal, hinged at one side. With no ratchet or other method of adjustment. And they fit like they were specifically made for Ahsoka. Kriff, we were lucky._

"Master?" Ahsoka asked, sensitive to his mood even when cut off from the Force.

"It was a trap." He said. "A kriffing trap. And we walked right into it, and if Rex hadn't been operating on top form, we'd both be on the Invisible Hand, in a cell."

Ahsoka just gave him a shocked look, examining the manacles for herself, feeling her own blood chill slightly. Then she wrapped herself around Anakin, and tucked her head into his shoulder, reliving the utter powerlessness she'd felt when the droid threw a set of manacles to Anakin. She’d watched him bend to pick them while she lay face down on the floor, completely defenceless. She’d been a hostage to force her Master to do something he would never normally do.

As his padawan just sobbed, becoming a seventeen year old who has just realised how close a call she had, Anakin realised just how close they'd come.

 _If that had been any other clone squad, there is no way they'd have arrived that fast. A minute later, and we'd both have been prisoners and hostages._ He and Ahsoka had actually delayed their pursuit of the McGuffin in order to get Rex and his elite team into position, rather than a rookie platoon of clones that would have been their backup. They'd used the time to learn the area they needed to traverse, which had made up the time thanks to shortcuts, so it had paid off, in more ways than one.

After a few minutes, Ahsoka's head came up, and she just snuggled against Anakin, almost possessively.

"Snips, go and have a shower." He told her, noticing that she very definitely looked like she'd spent the night with someone. It was postural, with Togruta. He'd had to wash his hair and clean the sweat and musk off of his body. She was standing more aggressively, her body language more possessive, and she was orientating towards him, even though she had no experience with her own culture to draw upon in that regard. Her lekku also hung differently, he noticed. "If I'm seen with you like this… conclusions will be drawn by the Council, and sympathy is something that they very much lack for things like this. I'd be thrown out on my ear for 'Taking advantage of my position'. They'd offer you counselling and you'd end up in just as much trouble as me…" He broke off, letting her draw her own conclusion.

"Because it was consensual, and no grooming was involved." She said, with a quiet voice. "They ask about those sort of things at the medicals. Because I'm assigned to a male knight…"

"And they think…" Anakin broke off, looking at his padawan, who had little trouble reading the outrage in his eyes.

"Yeah. They think you might." Ahsoka replied, quietly, not needing any more information. "You wouldn't have been the first." Then she moved her head towards her Master's, aiming for the lips.

"Snips!" He said, quietly, using tone rather than volume to convey the message.

"Wha'?" She responded, her voice huskier than usual, rubbing her still bare chest against her Master's. Anakin again ran through a brief calming exercise to avoid any physical reaction to her proximity. Ahsoka was intrigued by the slight prickling of his chest hair against her bare breasts.

"We were drunk last night." He told her, dispassionately. "I'm not sure either of us wanted to do what we did; it just seemed like a good idea. Go and get in the shower."

He received a flick of her tongue in reply, before Ahsoka headed for the shower, one step from tears, he realised, feeling her frustration and sense of humiliation at being turned down for sex so bluntly.

"Snips!" He called after her, his voice suddenly worried. "It's a 'Not yet', not an outright no."

The sense of humiliation faded somewhat as the Togruta padawan disappeared into the 'fresher. The feeling of frustration did not.

 _We’re going to need to find a way of dealing with this._ Anakin thought. _Before something happens._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As usual, when you let the characters take the reins, things can get a little off-track, such as Ahsoka and the Jedi Order child protection policy. I get this sort of thing a lot when writing...
> 
> (1): WD-40 and duct tape.


	3. A holocall from Obi-Wan

Anakin was drawn away from contemplating his padawan's body and the effects it was inevitably going to have on him, largely based on the simple fact that he was the proud owner of a Y chromosome, by the sound of his holocomm chiming loudly.

The precise piece of music it was producing was the theme tune to Grange School, a popular education drama produced on Coruscant. It was the ringtone he'd assigned to Obi-wan, for the simple reason that he was Anakin's main tutor in the arts of the Force, lightsaber duelling, and logic.

"Master." He said, answering the device with a smile, glad to have his mind taken off of the Ahsoka problem.

"Anakin." Obi-wan replied. "How are things on Teiron?"

"Well enough, master." Anakin said. "We ran into a bit of trouble yesterday actually."

"Oh?" Obi-wan asked.

"Snips got about twenty yards ahead of me, and disappeared behind a haulage speeder. Next thing I know, she's terrified, and when I vault the speeder, she's got an electrostaff pressed into the back of her head, and is pretty much totally defenceless, not to mention locked in anti-force cuffs."

"What?"

"That was my reaction." Anakin said, matter-of-factly. "Rex, fortunately, was on the ball, and he took out the hostage taking droid before it could force me to surrender."

"You would have." It wasn't a question.

"If it meant saving Snips from becoming the next Jedi killed in this war, in a heartbeat."

Obi-wan didn't even question the statement. If Anakin had been taken hostage, while he was still Obi-Wan's padawan, he knew he'd have done almost anything to get him out alive. It was the duty of a Jedi master towards their padawan. As simple as that.

"It was that serious?" He asked instead.

"She was flat on her stomach, had an electro-staff on her third lekku, and her hands were parallel behind her, six inches apart. If that kriffing droid had wanted to..."

"How is she holding up?"

_Oh, Force. How much of the truth do I tell?_

"She's a bit shaken. We haven't got the cuffs off of her wrists yet."

"She's still..."

"No, Master. She has her full range of motion again." Anakin reassured him.  _Including a few I didn't expect her to make._  We just can't get the cuffs off."

"Why?" Obi-wan asked, his tone suddenly very concerned.

"They were forged for her. Really well. There isn't a single flaw in them that I can detect."

"Your lightsaber?"

"I'd be lucky to slide a sheet of flimsi between her wrist and the cuffs. She's comfortable enough, just completely unable to touch the Force. It wouldn't matter how I went about it, she'd suffer burns at the least."

"Is she capable of combat?"

Anakin hesitated. "Not the sort of capable she needs to be." He replied, grimly after a few moments. "I can give her a blaster, and some white armour, if I have to."

"Yillo is just about tied up." Obi-wan replied. "I'm only about two hundred parsecs away."

 _Urk... I need to make sure he doesn't come here._  Anakin realized. "No, Master, we're just about finished as well." He blurted, a bit more hastily than he intended.

"I didn't know Senator Amidala wasn't on the capital." Obi-wan replied, knowingly. They'd been caught within a month by Obi-wan, but the council, when he reported it, hadn't cared, partly because there was a war on, and at least somewhat because it was a relationship driven by physical attraction and the need to relax. The order didn't care about physical relationships. He even knew of Jedi who frequented those parts of the Senate district where the type of call girls who were physically attractive waited on the corners of pedways and inside cheap hotels. Having a Jedi on the premises usually kept trouble away, so it was a mutually beneficial relationship, the Jedi getting a bit more than the government discount, and the brothels getting a force-using splatter **(1)**  now and again.

"She doesn't exactly publicize what she does in her spare time, Master." Anakin replied. It was true. As far as he knew, she was currently volunteering at a charity supporting those clones who were no longer able to fight, and trying to ensure that "defective units" we're treated as sentient beings, rather than organic droids.

"Well, when you're not busy, I'd like to catch up with you." Obi-wan said.

"I'd like that as well, Master."  _Once I've figured out how to solve the problem with Snips._

They exchanged a few more pleasantries, before Obi-wan signed off, his visit arranged for next taungsday.

Now all Anakin had to do was to make sure he wasn't going to be breaking the Code in the meantime. That was going to be the challenging part of the next few days.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Once the water started to flow over her, Ahsoka began to think a little more about what had happened.

 _I slept with my Master._  It was a rather cold way of considering it

 _We were drunk. He'd had more than me. Not by mass, I suspect, but I guess he wouldn't have been thinking... right._  The realisation of her actions shocked her slightly.  _I don't know if he'd have gone as far as that, if he hadn't been squiffy. I've seen him looking, of course, but I've seen half of Torrent checking me out as well. And I didn't go to bed with any of them. It wouldn't have been the same._

The cleansigel she normally used was half empty, she noted, as she squeezed out a palmful of the fluid, which was perfumed with what, to a Togruta nose, was one of the most appetizing aromas in the galaxy; fried nerf-bacon. It wasn't pronounced, compared to some of the gels designed for other humanoid species, but it always gave her a sense of well-being, pleasure, and relaxation, and didn't fail to do so as she massaged it into her skin, which had a rather different set of connotations than the day before.

As she rubbed it into her breasts, she realised that they felt sore, bruised, as if they'd been repeatedly squeezed. It was an odd feeling. _We actually did..._  She thought, remembering some sensations through the haze of mandolorian ale induced amnesia. _I slept with my Master. Oh force._  It wasn't so much that she hadn't wanted to, it was the fact that she'd done so while drunk. She'd imagined a moonlit alderaanian terrace, overlooking the Glarus valley, glasses of champagne, and sweet nothings in her ear.

Instead, she'd had a drink-fuelled night of sex, no more meaningful, in the grand sense, than being bent over a trash-recycler, having her pants pulled down, and spending five minutes being pleasured, in what would be nothing more than a transaction. And she could barely remember anything. She had a bunch of sensations, a couple of images, and a whole bunch of sore muscles.

 _And I don't think he's going to have all that much respect for my decision making. Not after that. It's almost worse than when I was the only member of Clawmouse to go with that man... It was a test, but if it hadn't been..._  It was an old shame. The Order had been doing a "stranger-danger" awareness session for the younglings, and she'd been one of the handful of younglings who ended up in the back of a speeder, with a man they'd never met before, and a blaster pointed at them to force them to handcuff themselves.

Once the cuffs had been on, and the situation had had a few moments to sink in, the speeder had landed, and Master Yoda had started to lecture her about her stupidity. She'd burst into tears. It hadn't won her any sympathy, and she'd spent the next week confined to the temple, writing an essay on what she'd done and why it was stupid. Yoda had simply handed her a set of tools, and told her to get the cuffs off herself, as an extra punishment. It'd taken her hours to successfully pick the lock, even though it was one of the simplest on the market, and the fluffy cover hadn't been even removed from the restraints.

"Snips?" She heard, from outside the door. "Are you OK?"

"I'm fine." She replied, her voice catching slightly. He wasn't going to believe her anyway, she knew that much.

He didn't believe her for a second, even with her force presence muted by the damnable restraints. He knew her far too well.

"Ahsoka." It was the Tone.

"I'm sorry, Master. For last night."

"It wasn't your fault. I was drunk."

"I made the first move." Kissing him for the first time was one of the images that had survived the alcohol-induced haze. She knew she'd initiated the kiss. She'd taken advantage of her Master's level of intoxication. "I shouldn't have..."

"Snips, it doesn't matter how drunk I was; you wouldn't have gotten anywhere if I hadn't been an equal partner."

"Master..."

"I'm a Jedi knight. I know better. Snips?" He broke off, listening intently. "Snips?" He called again. There was no reply.

Reaching out with the Force, he turned the simple mechanical lock that the GAR had fitted to all refreshers, releasing the peg holding the handle so that it could not rotate. He slid open the door, and just heard sobbing.

Hurrying through, he quickly located his padawan, slumped in the shower, under the still-running water, legs curled up to her chest, with her arms wrapped around her knees, battling with one of the cuffs with her right hand, sobbing into the palm of her left hand.

"I'm..." She began.

"Snipsy, I don't know how I feel about a relationship with you yet, not a long-term relationship, anyway. What happened last night was neither your fault or mine, so I want you to stop beating yourself up over it. You're cute enough for anyone to take an interest."

"I am?" It wasn't her usual response to being called cute, which was often percussive in nature.

Anakin bent his head slightly, and just kissed her between the montrals. "You are, Snips. You're the best padawan I could hope for."

She smiled, almost shyly, reminding Anakin of the innocent, cute, wide-eyed and inappropriately dressed fourteen year old padawan he'd accepted, just after the war started.

Then he left the room, pointedly using the Force to turn off the shower and to drape a towel over her montrals, before closing the door.

Looking down at her still secured cuffs, Ahsoka decided very quickly that the best way to resolve the situation was just to get on with things, and accept that the restraints would remain fastened around her wrists and that, therefore, she would be cut off from the force for a fair while, regardless of how painful and annoying that would be. Still, at least her Master wasn't planning to hand her over to the Jedi council anytime soon, with the suggestion that she be placed in the agricultural corps as a punishment for her behaviour, and permanently denied the title of Jedi Knight.

Clambering out of the shower, she towelled herself off, once again enjoying the lack of any significant level of body hair, and the ease with which her skin shed liquids, before darting through to her room, towel wrapped around her chest below her armpits for modesty. Carefully, she made sure to apply the mil-spec deodorant that was standard issue to clones, and which usually was employed by members of the Order while engaged in combat operations. It differed from standard civilian products by eliminating the odour of sweat, rather than masking it.

The selection of garments took a little longer. Despite the costume she normally wore on combat operations being designed for ease of movement, it also showed a fair amount of skin, and she felt that it would be sending the wrong message, given what had happened the previous night. Instead, she clambered into a set of garments she almost never wore; her thick, woollen Jedi robe, a standard, tan garment, made from ultra-simple woollen cloth, woven by hand somewhere in the galaxy by specialist artisans. It was strangely comforting to slip into the garment, and cuddle up in modest, unisex wool, that clearly defined what you were: a Jedi, pure and simple.

Then she stepped out into the main chamber, and was slightly surprised to find herself confronted by Rex, dressed in typical off-duty clone equipment, simple grey training clothes, with basic insignia on each sleeve.

"The commander was telling me that you've been having a few problems with those bracelets." He said. "He's asked me to arrange a distraction for you. Torrent Company has booked a few hours in the dyeball arena, and he was wandering if you wanted to make up the odd-number on the team."

Ahsoka glanced at Anakin, who replied with a look that suggested it was dyeballing with the clones, or meditating on the nature of the force.

"Sure. I'd love to." She replied, very earnestly. It would be a distraction, she reasoned.

Rex led her out of the door just as the holocomm went again, this time playing a very recognisable piece of music; The Nabooan planetary anthem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I needed some fluff to find the vein of the story, so that's what a fair bit of this chapter is, along with some exposition of the AU elements of this story. 
> 
> (1): Like a bouncer, only using a lot more Force. Yes, this is a reference.


	4. Anakin gets some news from Coruscant

Reluctantly, Anakin crossed to the holocomm again. It wasn't so much that he didn't want to talk to Padmé, who he strongly suspected to be his caller, unless she'd given someone her comlink, of course. His last chat with her had been while they were both desperately drunk, and he had no idea what he'd said, or why an e-mail had been sent to him from the Senate hall suggesting that he had been swearing sulphurously, and that doing so over an official, state-owned channel was a waste of taxpayers credits.

He waited for the caller's face to appear, confirming that it was either Senator Amidala, or someone who'd stolen her comlink, and was wearing a holographic disguise as well.

"Angel." He greeted her. "How are things on Coruscant?"

"As usual." Padmé replied, looking more tired than usual. "Senators lining their own pockets, the war faction trying to drum up support for their new wunderwaffen," she told him, using the exotic term deliberately. "Which will end the war in six weeks, when fully deployed."

"Is that the ceramite powered armour rig again?" He asked. "Are they still trying to arm the clones who'd be wearing it with 25mm gyrojet cannons, or did they give up on the idea?"

"No, I'm afraid." She replied, smiling slightly. "They're now trying to get the ammunition to explode when it strikes something, which is going to take another few months, if they want them to drop super battle droids with a three round burst."

"The Republic is working up in the outer system, isn't it?" Anakin asked.

"She is, yes." Padmé confirmed. "The estimate is that she'll be ready for action in about three weeks."

"Only another three weeks?" Anakin asked.

"They've pulled all of the stops out. I think that fleet command are collectively trying to compensate for something. Who needs a mile-long battleship?"

"It'll be good for command and control." Anakin replied. "It's got enough guns to tackle a squadron of Venators, although the starfighter complement would be a real issue for a republic. Six squadrons?" He sounded almost incredulous. "Sullust carries forty squadrons."

"They've got some sort of single-seater fighter they've been developing. Supposed to be enough to take on anything and win."

"They said that about the V-wing, Arc-170s, and the Y-wing." He commented.

"It's got decent specs. And no, that imbecile Tarkin didn't design it."

Anakin had seen the single-seater Tarkin had proposed. The TIE had good manuverability, and was quick. Unfortunately, it was dirt cheap, had no shields or armour, and some models only had one laser cannon.

"So it's actually capable of taking a single hit?" He asked.

"The fighter is." Padmé confirmed. "I'm not sure when it'll be ready, though."

She seemed to glance off to one side, slightly, before looking back at Anakin.

"How's Ahsoka?' She asked.

Anakin's face flickered slightly.

"No!" Padmé said. "She's too damned young to die in this stupid war."

"She's alive." Anakin said, reassuringly. Thankfully, she'd misinterpreted him. "We had a run in with a droid, and she ended up wearing a pair of anti-force cuffs. We can't find a way of getting them off of her wrists without injuring her."

Padmé glanced away for a moment, again. She remembered, with a bit of a smile, the time Anakin had taken her prisoner, and not let her off of the bed for several hours. Anakin grinned too, at the slight blush.

"It isn't funny!" Padmé yelled, her eyes dancing slightly, as her blush deepened.

"I've still got the cuffs somewhere..." Anakin said, with a glint in his eyes she knew meant mischief. Or just really good sex. One or the other.

"Don't you dare, Ani!" She was blushing even more furiously, remembering the photo he'd taken of her, spread-eagled on the bed in her Senate apartment. "I will sue you for harassment if any of the sludge-news outlets even mention my name and bondage in the same article."

"Why would I do anything like that?" He asked, innocently.

"Because you have the sort of low sense of humour that plays with a lady's bra from across the Senate chamber when she's giving an important speech."

"I did a bit more than that afterwards." He said, with a prototypical male smirk.

"You have no idea how hard it was to explain the leg falling off of my desk." She told him, shaking a finger.

Then a pair of fluffy cuffs arrived, wrapping themselves around her wrists without warning.

"Ani!" It was a dismayed squawk this time.

"I needed to practice."

She just smiled, crossing over to her desk to retrieve the keys, giving him a look that suggested that she would fillet him if the keys made a break for freedom.

"Angel, why did you phone today?" Anakin asked, once the grinning senator had detached both bracelets from her wrists, and stowed them back in her desk, concealed behind the bottle of correlian whiskey in the bottom drawer the desk.

"Ani, I'm pregnant." She said, looking him in the eyes. He took a step back from the holocomm. He didn't know how many boyfriends she'd had since him. Probably more than a couple. Their relationship had never been monogamous, even when they thought they were in love, rather than lust.

"How far along?" He asked. It would give him an idea of which staffer or fellow senator to crush the testicles of when he returned to Coruscant.

"Seven months, the med-droid says." She told him, her eyes disappearing behind a screen of unreadable emotions, even for someone who'd been so close to her.

"You haven't been to a clinic?" He asked, curiously. He knew that the first thing females were supposed to do when they thought they were pregnant was to visit a clinic specialising in that sort of thing.

"I was waiting for the tissue analysis to come back." She said, carefully before pausing for a few moments. "Anakin, you are the father." She told him, calmly.

"I... I'm the father?" Losing his arm had been less of a shock.

"That's what four different labs said." She looked very business-like all of a sudden, rather than the joking ex-lover she'd been a couple of moments before. "If they are force-sensitive, I want to send them to the Temple."

"I'm not sure I want any children of ours growing up to be Jedi. The Order is becoming corrupt."

"More corrupt than the rest of the corridors of power?" Padmé asked, somewhat frostily.

"Not yet." He almost growled. "Give them time."

"Anakin!"

"If I hadn't been able to find the evidence that Snips had nothing to do with the bombing at the Temple, they'd have executed her in a heartbeat. I can't forgive them for that." He paused, using a calming exercise to get his emotions under control before he blew up all of the lights in his quarters. "Do you need me to sign anything?" He asked, mind still spinning.

"I'll need you to sign a parentage acknowledgment form." She replied.

"You do know that the Galactic Child Support Service makes the separatists look like fluffy bunnies?"  **(1)**  He complained, mostly jokingly. "It's not that I don't want to pay any upkeep," he clarified. "And I will very happily provide childcare and respite, but I remember when Knight Cafici got dragged through the courts by them."

"In all fairness, Ani, he didn't want to pay."

"You have a point." He said, roguishly.

"Do you want me to come to Coruscant?" He asked her, still trying to process the idea of being a father, all of a sudden.

"Ani, I'll have enough trouble with the sludgers if "Visibly Pregnant Senator Amidala visits prenatal unit." If it's "In company of 'The Hero With No Fear" , I'd be facing twice as many questions again. As it is, I can at least use the line 'Senator Amidala is aware of the identity of the father of her child, and will be not disclosing this information at this time, and will be giving no interviews until after the birth of her children, understandably wishing for privacy at such a joyful and sensitive time.'"

"It's a good line." Anakin said. "Adding that the father will track down anyone who harasses the mother of his children and fillet them with a lightsaber..."

"Would give far too much of a clue." Padmé commented, with a smile.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka whooped, a most unseemly sound for a Jedi padawan, as she rolled into cover a few feet ahead of a stream of dyeballs, which had been tracking her for about ten yards, after she broke cover, and picked off two clones with her pistol. Four Squad's heavy support trooper had begun to spin up his massive gun as soon as she appeared, and had simply held down the trigger and traversed the weapon as she sprinted for the nearest cover.

Abruptly, she was borne to the floor, by what felt like half of Torrent company, and realized that the hammering of dyeballs into her cover had been a distraction. Her hands were twisted behind her, and she was trusted up with a pair of disposable binders, before a second pair were looped around her ankles.

"Four-One, we got her." She heard the clone announce, as she began to wriggle. For a moment, she felt tarmac pressing into her chest, and panicked, yanking frantically at her bonds, before the clone who'd secured her, who she now recognized as Hamster, although she had no idea where the nickname had come from, knelt down, and gently stroked her right montral, in a gesture equivalent to the stroking of the hair of a human, reminding her she was safe.

"Sir?" She heard. "What happened?"

"I was back groundside for a few moments." She explained. Then her eyes narrowed. "Hamster, Orangutan, do not dare..."She broke off as they placed a pole along the length of her back, and then wrapped adhesive tape around her torso, knees and ankles.

"This... is... not... funny..." She spluttered, unable to keep a straight face, as they ceremonially captured her, before carrying her back to their camp, at one side of the briefing room.

They hung her from a pair of A-frames, about three feet from the ground, much to her embarrassment, before just leaving her there, helpless, without the force, and entirely at the loving mercy of half of a platoon of clones, who secretly viewed her as the battalion "little sister". That meant her sexual characteristics would be entirely ignored, unlike her other habits.

It didn't take them long to leave a large sandwich, layered with onions, brown sauce, and thick slabs of nerf-bacon below her, covered with an anti-flying insect screen. And just leave her hanging there, able to see the sandwich and drool, from the aroma alone, but be totally unable to eat it or touch it.

Then her comlink went, playing the theme to Revan's Revenge, a drama featuring the legendary hero on Taris, along with Bastila Shan, Carth Onasi, and Mission Vao, ably backed up by Zaalbar the wookiee. She'd assigned the tune to her Master, much to his annoyance. (2)

"Hey, can someone get my comlink?" She yelled.

A few moments later, it was presented to her, and held next to her ear.

"Snips, can you come up to our quarters?" He asked.

"I'm a little tied up at the moment." She joked, for the sake of being able to say it.

"How long?" He asked, slightly more demandingly than before.

"Five minutes." She said. There was a sandwich to eat.

Reluctantly, the clones detached heir prisoner from the pole, allowing her to consume the sandwich, before she darted out of the room, dropping off her protective breastplate on her way out of the door, still chewing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When this chapter was initally written in late august 2015, it was shortly after an attempted mass shooting on a high speed train in France: I wrote the following footnote then, and am leaving it attached.  
> I'd like to congratulate Spencer Stone, Alex Skarlatos, Anthony Sadler and Chris Norman, along with an unnamed Frenchman, for their actions in foiling a shooting attack on a French high-speed train. They all fully deserve the medals that they have been awarded, including the Legion d'Honneur, the highest French award for bravery. Well done, lads. It goes to prove that the brave will always stand up to be counted, no matter what.
> 
> (1) I suspect that this is more or less the universal nature of child support agency type bodies. At least for those who fail to cooperate with them.  
> (2) The real purpose of most novelty ringtones is to be pointed out to the recipient of a personal tone, carefully selected to refer to their profession or personality.


	5. The Battle of Coruscant, Part One

Ahsoka arrived in her Master's cabin at a dead run, panting more than she normally would by a considerable margin.  _I never realised how much I rely on the force for everyday things…_  She thought to herself.

Then she pushed open the cabin door, and headed inside.

Anakin was sitting there, poker-faced, trying not to give away anything.

"Master?" Ahsoka asked. "What's happened."

"Take a seat, Snips." He replied, his voice sounding very different to usual, almost as if he were slowly coming to terms with something. "I've just received some news from Coruscant?"

"Is it Obi-wan?" She asked, nervously. He was a friend and a member of the clan, after all.

"He's fine, Snips, last I heard. He's just wrapping up on Yilla, actually."

"Oh... so... What's up?"

"Snips, you know I used to go out with Senator Amidala?"

"Ye... Oh." She broke off, wondering what was going on.

"Snips, I'm going to be a father." He said it almost casually, simply to say it. He didn't fool her, even without the Force to help her read his emotions. His shock was visible to someone with her extremely limited skill in reading facial expressions, having always relied on the Force to interpret emotions.

"Who?" She asked.

"Senator Amidala." Anakin replied.

"You... and Senator Amidala?" She asked, slightly incredulously. "W..."

"It's been over for six months, Snips." Anakin said. "I'm not sure what I want..."

"With me." She replied, her voice dropping slightly. Anakin had always had a reputation among those knights assigned to the younglings as a Lothario.

"I don't know, Snips. It isn't a no... I just need to think about it." He said.

Then the alarm sounded in their cabin.

Anakin instantly keyed the holocomm with the Force.

"General Skywalker, this is Captain Sisko. There is a situation over Coruscant." the captain of the Sullust told his Jedi General. "The Invisible Hand and her battlegroup have dropped out of hyperspace within the geostationary radius of the planet."

"Captain, detach Faulkner and Sizemore," Anakin replied, referring to two of the Assault Ships assigned to his fleet. "They can mop up here. Then get the rest of the squadron on route to Coruscant."  _And I hope that the Force will be with us all._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was a quiet day on Orbital traffic monitoring platform seventeen. Per Ceda, the chief controller, hailing from naboo, was busy with her third cup of caf of the working day. Her rutian twi'lek assistant was monitoring the footpaths of a pair of bulk freighters, which were from systems that were more or less at war.

"If they come within turbolaser range, I want to know about it." The comely nabooan said, brushing her medium-length blond hair out of her eyes.

"Aye aye." Ce'na, her assistant replied, flicking a headtail slightly as she closed the game of solitaire she'd been playing, with one eye on her traffic display.

Then she frowned.

"Sir, I'm picking up a massive disturbance on the gravimetric scanner, bearing 294, -47."

"How massive?"

"Computer estimates three point seven petatonnes."

"What?" Ceda yelled, before she reacted almost immediately, her training taking the place of higher brain function for a vital few seconds. "Coruscant, this is orbital seventeen. We have a three point seven petatonne anomaly, bearing 294, -47."

"Orbital seventeen, repeat mass of anomaly. I heard three point seven petatonnes, over."

"Control, that is what our readouts are telling us."

"Get out of there, Ceda. You've done all you can." It was a different voice, more senior. "If that's a separatist fleet, it's ninety percent of their remaining space forces."

"Aye aye." It was a mechanical response. She knew that much. But it was the only thing she could say.

The two females looked around for a few moments, grabbed their bags from their desks, collected the novelty mugs they'd brought each other for life-day, and sprinted into the escape pod, blasting out of the station, and back down to the planet, the on-board computer setting up the pod for an unpowered re-entry at ten degrees, aiming for a reservoir near the Manari mountains, which provided watersport facilities for a third of the planet.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"All hands, this is Admiral Onasi." The commander of the galactic republic home fleet announced, over a fleet-wide communications channel. "As you are hopefully aware, we're going to be busy today. In about five minutes, a large enemy fleet is expected in Coruscant orbit. It's our job to slow them down. The entire damned navy is on its way, but we need to slow down the enemy until they get here. The planetary shields are going to be up in time, so we will disengage when we have to. May the Force be with you all."

"Admiral Onasi." He heard, over a separate channel. "This is Rear-Admiral Harrington, CO of the RSS Republic. Do you want me to jump in and join you?"

"Rear-Admiral, if we had four republic class units, I'd want them. One of you, though, isn't something I can risk. You're going to be the most individually powerful ship in this system, even if they bring in Invisible Hand. But you don't have the firepower to turn the fight on your own, and your ship is the lead ship of her class, and we need her to complete working up."

"Copy that. Harrington clear."

Then Onasi turned his attention to planning for the battle.

He didn't have long to wait.

Almost exactly on schedule, the separatists dropped out of hyperspace. The Invisible Hand led more than two thousand Lucrehulk battleships, five thousand frigates, and hundreds of varieties of corvettes, cruisers and destroyers. Against them, home fleet arrayed fifteen hundred Venator star destroyers, four hundred victory destroyers, and four and a half thousand aggressor assault ships, along with hundreds of carrack cruisers, dreadnoughts, and a medley of other classes. The separatist fleet had a numerical edge of better than two to one, but were actually slightly outgunned by the Republic fleet.

"All units, attack formation Alpha Five. Launch all our fighters."

Almost instantly, home fleet started to stream starfighters, forming clouds of snubfighters around and in front of home fleet, forming up to meet the vulture droids sent in on mass.

Home fleet had launched perhaps twenty thousand starfighters. Coming the other way, was a swarm of thirty thousand vulture droids, lethal enough to match any of the pilots arrayed against them, on a purely mechanical level.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Kad five was the call sign of one of the countless members of the clone units above Coruscant. He'd been killing time in the ship's games room, playing a slightly unorthodox version of darts, using throwing knives, targeted against an empty food container with a simple hooded figure painted on it.

The scramble bell sounded, suddenly, and he and the rest of the squadron just sprinted for their fighters, a scene repeated thousands of times throughout the fleet.

Dropping into his V-wing, the clone quickly powered up the starfighter, before exiting the main hanger of RSS Alainki, named for one of the fallen knights of Geonosis, in formation with the rest of his squadron.

Kad squadron took their place in the barrier of fighters protecting their body of the fleet about a minute before the droids arrived.

"Five, take your flight and... engage the enemy." Then the fighters engaged.

Kad five whipped his starfighter out of line with a charging vulture droid, firing at a pair of the droid starfighters that were harassing a formation of Y-wings, as the heavy two-seaters ran in on a corvette, releasing their proton torpedoes in an careful volley of fire, tearing the enemy vessel apart in the flare of a hypermatter core breach.

The two droids exploded under the gunfire of the V-wing, before Five dropped into combat with the vulture droid attacking him, laser cannons blazing, managing to wrestle his way behind it. Then he continued into the engagement, firing at opportunity targets, and dodging as many of the shots aimed at his ship as possible.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Onasi wasted no time in reorganizing his formation once the starfighter engagement was underway. The best formation for such an engagement was a simple wall of warships, the heaviest hitters in the centre, closest to the system plane, and the lightest ships on the "top" and "bottom" edges. He dropped his units into it, forming a battle line fifty warships high, with three layers, each able to rotate in and out of the front line at will.

Before long, the first turbolaser salvos were going in and out, punching holes through fighter formations, the number of beams absorbed by starfighters negligible compared to the overall number of weapons fired.

Initially, shields shrugged off the hits.

Soon, though, damage reports started to filter in.

"Tyan has just lost her port hanger door." Onasi heard, as he pondered his formation, and that of the enemy, looking to see what damage was being done. Two acclamators had already exploded, hit by fire meant for their betters, and a dozen more were bleeding atmosphere. The star destroyers were doing better, but several had taken serious damage.

"Admiral, we just lost Kiron." The ship had been a Victory class destroyer. Now, it was an expanding ball of debris, nearly the entire crew killed in the catastrophic explosion triggered by a concussion missile penetrating into the forward torpedo magazine, before detonating the entire payload of warheads.

Elsewhere, more ships were exploding. The list of names was lengthening rapidly. Tyan had been forced to withdraw, a third of her hanger deck on fire. Three more Venators had exploded, along with a dozen acclamators.

It wasn't just the Republic fleet losing ships. More than a dozen lucrehulks had been destroyed, the massive warships taking hits to their circular control platforms, largely from marauding wings of Y-wing starfighters. Dozens more minor CIS units had been destroyed. It was a slugging match. Then, suddenly, everything changed.

A formation of Providence class destroyers, the same class as Invisible Hand, swept down from above the Republic wall, tearing a breach into the formation as they demolished a squadron of acclamators, then a division of Venators. Two of the dreadnoughts died in the engagement, but it left ten more tearing into the heart of the Republic formation.

"Admiral Stormgrin, get your squadron in there!" Onasi barked.

"Aye aye."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The mirialan admiral in command of formation baker five, consisting of more than a dozen Victory II Star destroyers, turned away from the communications link.

"Formation all forwards, target those Dreadnoughts."

With a surge of blue ion discharges, the unit advanced, drawing the attention of the battlecruiser formation with a co-ordinated volley of ion and turbolaser fire, which dismantled one of the dreadnoughts, the ion fire dropping the vessel's shields, with the turbolasers coming in behind them less than a second later. One volley, from the RSS Enterion, smashed through five layers of armour, before exploding into a reactor compartment, decimating the reactor core contained within, although the failsafes shut down the hardware before the reactor exploded. Another volley of fire, this on from RSS Kilo V, struck the bridge section at the front of the ship, tearing apart the flight deck, sending the dreadnought out of control, rolling suddenly into the path of its consort, which was forced to take evasive action, leaving it out of line to engage any of the republic units attacking the strike formation. Two more volleys of gunfire finished off the crippled dreadnought, and the rest of the republic formation began to englobe them.

"Division One, fire on the dreadnoughts bearing two one niner. Division two, engage enemy units bearing zero eight four." Stormgrin ordered his ships, as the enemy fire began to pour into the elite squadron. The volume of fire would have disabled many formations of Victory class destroyers outright, but the skills of the clones crewing the Star Destroyers made a huge difference to the amount of damage that was taken, both with maneuvers that were nowhere in the manual, allowing them to avoid a considerable percentage of incoming fire, while bringing their own guns onto target as they were ready to fire, blasting out walls of coherent light, plasma, and ionic discharges. The fire sent a second dreadnought reeling out of the fight, with most of its propulsion systems blown away by a salvo of turbolaser fire. It struggled to turn, clearly attempting to stay in action, and was pulverised by a follow-up strike from one of the Victory-II Destroyers, which ripped a two hundred metre long gouge in the side of the hull, and dismantled the forward reactor core in a spectacular blaze of fire, shredding the forward half of the dreadnought as it lost containment, the flare of light briefly exceeding the visible output of the system primary.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

On Coruscant, Senator Padmé Amidala saw the sudden flare of light, and knew it was a ship dying. She'd already seen dozens of such flares, but this was by far the nearest and brightest. Somewhere up there, she knew, the Nabooan navy, flying the same N-1 starfighters they'd flown into battle over their homeworld more than a decade before, would be in the thick of the action. There were perhaps five hundred of the graceful, aerodynamic starfighters in service, and all but a handful had been assigned to Coruscant.

"Senator, come inside." She heard, called from the interior of her apartment by captain Typho, her bodyguard since she'd been fourteen, just after the battle of Naboo.

"Captain, this war is my responsibility, as much as everyone else's. Watching brave men die might convince a few of my fellow senators that war is a stupid way to resolve a political issue."

"Senator." It was the command voice, this time. It must have been something they taught at bodyguarding college, as she was half turned and beginning to walk towards him before she processed what he'd said. "If you do not come inside, and continue to watch on your viewscreen, from behind the security grid, I will pick you up and carry you inside." She knew it wasn't an idle threat, and it was at least partially what she employed him for. His paranoia had saved her life at least once, after all, and being willing to put his foot down when he judged her to be putting her own safety at risk was something she trusted him to be competent and assertive enough to do. Reluctantly, she crossed the balcony, before stepping inside, allowing Typho to close the security screen behind her, and activate the shield generators positioned to protect the windows, which came to life with a dull whine, cutting off most of the sounds from the planet outside. Then he stepped into the room, and she noticed that the flap on both his pistol holster and binder pouch were undone.

"Gregar…" she said, injecting a note of hurt into her voice that he'd thought he might have to haul her inside, and secure her to an item of furniture to keep her there.

"I know you." He replied. "You wouldn't have come in if you didn't think I was right, and it is one of duties imposed on a nabooan bodyguard to be able to make a judgement as to when your principal is being stubborn and is unlikely to willingly cooperate."

Once again, she was reminded why, at fifteen, she'd had a monumental crush on her bodyguard. He was assertive, trustworthy, and kind, where she was concerned at least, although, as senator, she also knew about his volunteer post at a clinic in the undercity, where he gave two nights of his time a week as security. They were things that would turn the head of a teenager, particularly one who was busy ruling a planet, a very lonely position for anyone, never mind a girl who would normally be spending her time in school and giggling over boys.

"How long?" she asked.

"Sixteen hours, military command estimates. The seps have a hull advantage, which may tell, ultimately. Right now, we just don't know who is going to win, only that there will be a lot of casualties on both sides before the battle is over."

"Any word of casualties of our own?" She asked

"Four fighters of ours are down, and three pilots have been recovered."

"Who did we lose?" She knew she was unlikely to remember the name, but it was the only thing she could ask.

"Chief Kalam."

Padmé remembered the grizzled veteran very well. He'd been unable to reach a fighter during the invasion, and had led a cell of police officers and armed civilians in an extremely effective resistance south of Theed.

"He led his flight to take some of the pressure off a Y-wing squadron. He went down covering them against an entire enemy squadron. His telemetry cut out in a heartbeat. He couldn't have reached the ejector toggle fast enough."

Padmé just bowed her head, murmuring a quick prayer to any deity that might be listening, on his behalf. She knew it wouldn't be the last friend she lost in the next sixteen hours.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Overhead, the battle became more savage. Taking an increasing number of casualties, Admiral Onasi made the only call he could; to move closer to the enemy in order to engage them as aggressively as possible. His reasoning was simple: the larger CIS ships would struggle in a war of manuever against the lighter acclamators, with Venators and Victory class destroyers in support to exploit weaknesses.

The two lines met with a furious hailstorm of turbolaser and ion cannon fire, disintegrating several of the acclamators as they closed, their own weapons firing steadily in response. A CIS battleship exploded as well, about the two hundredth of its class to die in the furious engagement. A number of vulture droids blew as well, deprived of their control signal, and self-destructing as a consequence. Ships and laser weapons blazed as the two lines intermingled, hundreds of crewmen and droids being killed or destroyed every second of the battle.

After three hours of sustained close action, though, the weight of CIS hulls began to tell; each republic casualty inflicted a proportionately greater firepower loss than a CIS hull did. The republic defenders were forced back, fighting a series of actions in and around the orbiting satellites above Coruscant. A skyhook was sufficient to hide a star destroyer, a fact which was learnt a number of times during the engagement that followed by various unfortunate CIS warships that found themselves taking heavy fire from very close quarters, and, except in the case of Lucrehulk or Providence class units, were usually destroyed or disabled in the first few moments.

The republic fleet had lost approximately six hundred star destroyers before the retreat, a quarter of them Victory class units, although only two of the Victory-II hulls had been lost, thanks to a combination of superior firepower, and therefore ability to fight their way out of trouble by themselves, and greater speed, allowing them to more easily run away from fights they couldn't win. Close to a thousand acclamators assault ships had been lost in action, along with more than a hundred carrack class cruisers, more than fifty dreadnoughts, and seven thousand starfighters of all marks, six thousand of which had been shot down outright, killing a total of nine thousand flight crew, mostly clones, and another thousand written off after returning to their carrier.

CIS casualties included seven hundred lucrehulk battleships, one hundred providence class dreadnoughts, and about two thousand ships of other classes. It had taken the separatists eighteen hours of near continual combat to force the defending fleet away from their initial position, half a million kilometres from the planet, and into planetary orbit.

The next eighteen hours of combat saw more than a thousand more republic capital ship losses, the vast majority Venators and Acclamators, although another two dozen victory destroyers were knocked out as well, along with two thousand more starfighters, and three thousand flight crew. Against those losses, the separatist fleet lost another five hundred lucrehulk battleships, seventy dreadnoughts, and more than fifteen thousand vulture droids.

Finally, though, Admiral Onasi made the toughest call of his life.

"Coruscant Command, this is Admiral Onasi." He said, his command centre ceiling concealed by smoke. "I am requesting permission to disengage from orbit over Coruscant, and withdraw to resupply and regroup. Most of my force is no longer capable of engaging in combat."

"Permission granted, Admiral." It was the chancellor himself, Onasi realised. "You've done more than we thought possible." It was true. The separatists had been expected to take sixteen hours to achieve space superiority over Coruscant, if they achieved it at all. It had taken them thirty six hours.

"Thank you, sir, and good luck. May the Force be with you."

"And with you, Admiral." Palpatine said, signing off, as the defending force began to stream away from the planet, most units remaining in close formation, with those units able to do so in squadron strength making short jumps towards the repair bases at Muscave, the far side of the asteroid belt separating the rocky planets from the gas giants further out.

The CIS fleet settled into orbit around Coruscant, too badly damaged to pursue anything except the cripples, before beginning to probe the planetary shield, looking for weaknesses, as the support train began to arrive, and disgorge landing craft.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin turned away from the holoterminal as Ahsoka exited her cabin, wearing far less than normal.

"Not the time, Snips." He said. Sullust had been in hyperspace for thirty-six hours. Ahsoka had been making her position on further exploration of their force bond very clear, but Anakin had forced himself to resist. He was her master, for the Force's sake.

Reluctantly, she dipped back into her quarters, pulling on her robe over the top of her boob-tube, now far too tight; with the growing up she'd done since she was a fourteen year old Padawan.

"We need to get those cuffs off of you." He told her, once she was dressed in a fashion that supported his peace of mind. Having a perky, hormonally charged seventeen year old Togruta around him all the time was bad enough; having one wearing less than a dancing girl in the service of a hutt was worse.

"How?" Ahsoka asked.

"I've been doing some research." He said. "There's a method we can use to get those off of you, but it's risky."

"Master, with all due respect, this entire war is risky." Ahsoka replied, with a grin that sent far too many hormones around her master's body for his comfort.

"If this goes wrong, you will lose part of your hand." He explained. "I'm going to use a water cutter, from the workshop, to remove the cuffs. It's the only way to get them off safely."

"I guess." Ahsoka stated. "It's the only option that is unlikely to leave me in a bacta tank with third degree burns."

Anakin led the way down the machine shop, passing curious clones the whole way. He also heard a few comments, which seemed to suggest that Ahsoka was 'putting out' in the corridor, mostly suggesting that the long term rumour about the two of them was correct, and that they were screwing, to use the military term.

When they arrived at the machine shop, Anakin set to work. Adjusting machinery of the type they were going to be using was his speciality, or one of them. A careful lightsaber cut could have been an option, but the fleet had run out of insulating paper a month earlier, after an entire batch was captured by the separatists. Nonetheless, he inserted as many sheets of paper between Ahsoka's wrists and the two cut locations as possible, knowing that the machines were accurate to within a tenth of a millimetre, and that the cut itself would be just the diameter of a hair. The most time consuming part of the process was the part that he could feel Ahsoka enjoying; he needed to fix her arms to the bench, and ensure she wasn't even going to twitch slightly during the operation, before setting the cutter to work. He placed her arms so that her palms were facing upwards, placing a wide strap across her palm, with a tongue tucking into her wrist, ensuring that she couldn't even slightly move the limbs. A strap around her elbows ensured that she was unable to move even slightly.

"If you wanted, Master, we could have done this on the bed in your quarters instead." Ahsoka quipped.

"No, we couldn't, Snips." Anakin told her, dotting a kiss between her montrals, provoking a certain amount of enraged squirming, as she tried to bring him into lip-to-lip contact, just before her master snapped the welding mask in place over her face, taking one for himself, and toggling the machine active.

She couldn't even see the ultra-fine jet of water as the machine slowly sliced through the cuffs, cutting them at both hinge and lock, the paper protecting her allowing the bracelets to be sliced into four separate sections over the course of ten minutes of cutting.

Finally, as the final cut finished, Ahsoka felt the force wash back into her, suddenly able to feel the concern, and deeply buried desire, in her Master, along with the relief that she hadn't been injured.

"You ok, Snippers?" He asked, noticing the tears prickling in the corners of her eyes.

"It's… back." Master." She said.

Then she felt him use the force to release the various loops of duraweave cloth pinning her to the table, and he just spun her into his arms, leaning down, and holding her, not seeming to care as her face pivoted, and she kissed him on the lips, force presence soaring as her arms closed around him, pulling her master close, and for a few moments, they lost themselves in each other's force aurorae.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My first attempt at writing a fleet action that didn't involve the Honorverse. Lots of big numbers, anyway.


	6. The Battle of Coruscant, Part Two

Their first sober kiss was a rather complicated experience. Without the fugue and inhibition reduction associated with being three sheets to the wind, there was no desire directed (by Anakin at least) towards resecuring his padawan to the bench, the other way up, and experimenting with the benefits of wearing Jedi robes with a minimum of underwear. Well, not much anyway.

Instead, there was a sense of wonder. Ahsoka was very different, compared to Padmé. There was less volume, compared to the human female, but far more sinuous muscle. Ahsoka felt in return the firm muscle of a Jedi knight in the prime of his life, overlaid by a thin layer of fat, healthy enough that it did not conceal the tissues behind it.

It was almost as indescribable as a colour expressed through taste, for a few, near perfect moments. Something, buried deep within the Force, seemed to swell for a half-felt instant, giving them a sense of rightness.

Then the moment passed. Anakin leant back from his padawan, heads rising. Her eyes were almost glowing, making her facial patterns look even more pronounced than usual.

"I love you." Anakin heard someone say. He realised, with shock, it was his own voice, a few moments later.

Ahsoka just cuddled closer to him, burying her head in his broad chest. He felt a few drops of moisture soak through his tunic, and he just provided what comfort he could to his suddenly tearful, emotionally vulnerable padawan.

"I..." she managed to gasp, after a while.

"You don't have to say anything, Snips." He dotted another kiss between her montrals. "I know."

They broke apart, smiling.

Then they headed for Anakin's compartment, not even noticing when Ahsoka's hand infiltrated Anakin's hand. The clones they passed in the corridor took a couple of glances to realise, but there were no challenging comments at all.

Then they stepped inside their private compartment. Not because there was a pressing need for privacy; sober, that wasn't on the menu yet. They just needed some time for cuddling, kissing and learning about each other's emotions.

"emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Chaos, yet harmony. Passion , yet serenity. Death, yet The Force." Anakin recited, quietly, holding the person who was suddenly the most important thing in his galaxy close to him, and feeling her snuggle close, a more intimate snuggle than when they'd been watching holoflicks late at night during the early stages of their master/padawan relationship.

"What?" Ahsoka asked. She knew it was the Jedi code, but there was a massive difference. The Jedi code was prescriptive, setting barriers in front of certain activities. This code seemed to allow more interpretation, giving a set of guidelines for Jedi to follow.

"It's an old translation of the code." He explained. "The grey Jedi follow it."

"Oh." Ahsoka said. She'd been taught that the grey Jedi were heretics, effectively. So how did her Master know what creed they followed?

"I did some research... when I was going out with Senator Amidala. I was looking for something rhetorical I could use in the event that having sex was deemed a breach of the code." He said, reacting to her tone. "More than a few knights follow such teachings, quietly."

"Do you believe there is a dark side?" Her eyes were as wide as when they'd curled up together to watch Sando III on the holovision just after a scene in which the biologist was eaten with much crunching and a loud scream. Was her Master a closet heretic?

"I've seen those who follow it. I've stood against them. And I don't feel for a second that it is a matter of intent for a Jedi. The Force gives a form of feedback, whenever you do something, good or bad. The result of doing evil is the dark side."

"I..." Ahsoka said, quietly, as Anakin bent down, kissing the tip of her nose.

"If I ever fall to the dark side, I want you to stop me." He continued, more seriously. "More than one Sith Lord has been redeemed by sheer love." Then he paused, his eyes flickering to the left, and slightly upward.

"Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled, but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love, that's what they should teach you to beware, but love itself will save you, not condemn you." He said, the cadence of his voice changing slightly.

"Who was that?" Ahsoka asked. She'd noticed the slight change in tone of a recitation from memory.

"A great Jedi master, called Jolee Bindo. He suffered greatly because of his love, but he ultimately became a hero to the entire galaxy." Anakin explained. "He stood with Revan at the Star Forge, and helped to guide the Order as it rebuilt after the Jedi civil war."

"So…"

"So, if I love you, and you love me, I am less likely to fall to the dark side."

Ahsoka giggled slightly, before moving in for a kissing offensive.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

For the next few days of hypertravel, Anakin and Ahsoka continued the slow process of learning about one another. The process was slow and tentative, but nonetheless enjoyable for all that.

Every day of it, despite their already not inconsiderable acquaintance, Anakin and Ahsoka both learnt something new about each other, whether it was Ahsoka's love of Nerf–bacon sandwiches garnished with an Alderaanian chilli pickle, which she had had little cause or time to prepare since the start of the clone wars, or that Anakin actually quite liked the smell of her shower gel, despite it smelling more like smoked meat than the standard herbal options chosen by humans or most humanoid species.

Inevitably, given the age of the two involved, there was a fair amount of cuddling, quite a lot of kissing, and all of the other various explorations carried out by humanoid teenagers and sub-adults of all species and races. With all that said, though, the final exploration of boundaries and interests was put off by mutual consent, even though both wanted to go that little bit further, particularly after Anakin arranged a screening of the latest holo- flick in the Sando series, Sando VIII.

The consumption of popcorn, a small amount of candyfloss, and two not entirely non-alcoholic sweet drinks apiece created a situation where congress was only averted at the time Anakin realised he needed to go to the toilet, creating enough of a pause for both Jedi to remember they weren't supposed to be doing that sort of thing aboard a republic warship and that Master Yoda was liable to get quite shirty if he found out.

Finally though, Sullust, along with most of her escort units barring the two assault ships that had been detached finish the clean-up at Teiron, dropped out of hyperspace on the fringes of the Coruscant system, nine days after they'd received the distress call from planetary command.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"General Skywalker, this is Rear Admiral Harrington. Do you copy, over?" Anakin heard over the communications link, five minutes after dropping out of hyperspace.

"Admiral Harrington, this is General Skywalker, I read you loud and clear, over."

"It's good to see you General. As you can see we've been having a little bit of trouble lately."

"What is the status of Admiral Onasi?" Anakin asked.

"Steadfast was destroyed covering the retreat of the rest of the fleet, general. I'm the highest ranking officer left in the fleet who isn't ground side and incommunicado."

"Force." Anakin swore quietly. "Have you got a plan for retaking Coruscant?"

"I've got one." She replied, with a slightly lilting soft accent. It was as far she got before a small prick eared head stuck itself over her shoulder, looking into the holo-transmitter curiously. "Yi-sun, get down please." She said, with a slight, very tolerant smile.

"Bleek." The head replied. Anakin noticed that the creature attached to it was wearing its own miniature uniform, complete with facemask.

Reluctantly, the human reached over her shoulder, before placing a hand firmly on top of the head and pushing it back down.

"Anyway, as I was saying, our plan is relatively straightforward. We take advantage of the not inconsiderable numerical superiority we have built up, particularly it comes to undamaged warships, and move in for an envelopment attack on enemy forces. Once the attack is underway, crack Jedi strike teams will be deployed to board Invisible Hand, and recover the Supreme Chancellor.

"They've captured the Chancellor?" Anakin asked, astonished.

"General Grievous took down his protection unit twelve hours ago." The admiral explained. "They overpowered him, and dragged him on board Invisible Hand in chains. Since then they've been demanding that we surrender or they will kill the Chancellor."

"When was the deadline they gave?"

"Another 25 galactic standard hours into the future." Admiral Harrington replied. "So as you might guess, we've got a few hours yet before we have to make our move."

"They'll be expecting us to move then." Anakin commented. "We need to move now, before they either harm the Chancellor, or decide he has zero hostage value."

"It'll take fifteen minutes to get the fleet moving, and make sure all of the units we take into action are battle-ready."

"Do it." Anakin ordered.

"General, would you prefer to deploy from Sullust, or from the Republic?" She asked.

Anakin thought for a few moments. It wasn't a hard choice, really. Deploy from the same ship as always, or get a look at the newest, most powerful Star Destroyer in the galaxy.

"I think I'll deploy from the Republic, if that is something you have no objection to, Admiral." He said. Ahsoka was practically dancing at his side with enthusiasm, although she was completely internalizing it, leaving her glee only detectable through the Force.

"Certainly, General." Harrington replied. "Bring Torrent with you. We need some elite clones over the top of our establishment."

"They'll enjoy the exercise." Anakin replied, before turning to his communications panel. "Rex, get Torrent loaded aboard the LAATs. Follow us over to the Republic."

"Yes, sir." Rex replied.

"Sisko, you have the ship until I get back. Don't break her." Anakin told the captain commanding the Sullust.

"Aye aye." The human replied. "I have the ship, sir."

"Coming, Snips?" Anakin asked.

Ahsoka just shoved him, gently, in the direction of the lift shaft leading to the hanger deck.

Once inside the lift, Anakin activated a mental stopwatch, using the force to lean on the priority transit button, and thoroughly kissing an extremely receptive Ahsoka, before stepping away five seconds before the doors opened, leaving the pair a metre apart, and looking as if nothing had taken place between them during the trip.

After a moment's thought, they clambered into their starfighters, still wearing their ordinary robes for the short hop, rather than the full flight suits that they should have been wearing. It didn't matter, though, as a couple of minutes later, both fighters came in for an elegant three point landing on the deck. The deck was nearly full, covered in a layer of precision landed ARC-170 starfighters, and comparatively polished looking, compared to the grimy hanger of the Sullust.

Admiral Harrington, along with her companion, was waiting to meet them.

"Admiral." Anakin said, formerly saluting her, as did Ahsoka, a few moments, and a gentle force-prod, later.

"General Skywalker. Welcome aboard the RSS republic." She said, in a clear soprano voice. Once again, the small prick-eared head riding on her back, in a specially designed harness, rose up, with a bleek.

"This is Yi-Sun-Shin." She explained.

"You're a sphynxian?" Anakin asked, recognising the small creature as a Hieracosphinx, one of the very few species known to galactic science to have some form of telepathy, although they were limited to simple stone tools, unlike the near-humans they shared their planet with.

"I am. Not much of a telepath, but we can communicate easily enough."

The 'sphinx wriggled for a moment, before releasing his own harness, and clambering curiously into Ahsoka's arms, nuzzling at her montrals with a curious look in his eyes.

"I think he likes you." Anakin said.

-0-0-0-

 _[The human and the Togruta are mated]_ Yi-sun-shin told his partner after a moment, through their bond.

 _[I'm not concerned.]_ The admiral replied.  _[Even if it is against their code, it's none of our business.]_

Then, Ahsoka still carrying the 'sphinx, the part stepped into the turbolift, which deposited them not on the bridge, but in a small waiting room nearby.

"Here's the plan." The admiral said, setting out various markers. "Can your elites handle a boarding action?"

"If this is the plan, they most certainly can." Anakin replied, shivering slightly at the efficiency of the operations plan that was proposed.

-0-0-0-

"Give me an open mike." Admiral Harrington told her communications ensign, a slightly scrawny zabrak male.

"Aye aye, sir." He replied. "Hot mike."

"This is Admiral Harrington." She announced. "As you have probably noticed, there are a few unpleasant folks in orbit around Coruscant. I know a fair few of you have already crossed vibroswords with them, so you'll be pleased to know that we are not going to be letting them escape the system. When they move out, we're going to jump them, and give them the biggest kicking they've ever had in their lives. Even the clankers should figure it out. When I say go, that's it. So, let's be about it, people. These seps have earnt themselves the mother of all reamings, and it's our job to insert the suppository."

When the separatist fleet began to move away from the planet, Admiral Harrington made her move.

Two battlegroups of Victory-II hulls, numbering about one hundred each, made a short jump, emerging in polar orientations, at perhaps fifteen thousand kilometres from the surface, able to drop onto the top of the spherical formation with ease.

Another element of the battlegroup made their own jump. Mostly comprised of Venator Destroyers and Acclamator assault ships, Anvil positioned itself about two hundred thousand kilometres ahead of the separatist flotilla, dropping out of hyperspace in battle formation, and fully cleared for action.

The final group made two jumps. The first jump took them above the planet, close to a million kilometres above the planetary north pole. The second took another hundred and fifty Victory-II Star Destroyers within five hundred kilometres of the separatist formation, guns firing almost as soon as they'd dropped out of hyperspace.

Two of the Lucrehulks closet to the threat axis of the newly arrived squadron exploded. The Destroyers had been forced to find a way of transporting more than three starfighter squadrons, and the only option had been an external transit, hauling them on their outer hull.

Now, seven thousand Arc-170 starfighters launched from the hulls of the star destroyers. From the two polar fleets, a wave of Y-wings launched, accompanied by V-Wing interceptors and close to two hundred Jedi interceptors. The capital ships accelerated behind the starfighters, dropping down into the teeth of the separatist formation.

Even a seasoned commander, such as Grievous, was inevitably going to be badly challenged when a force with effective numerical parity to his own suddenly deployed, before catching his formation in a pincer and drill movement. In the following fifteen seconds, twelve Lucrehulk battleships exploded, along with five of his remaining forty Providence Class dreadnoughts, and dozens of frigates. The majority of the return fire, ordered by individual neomoidian commanders, was directed at a handful of Star Destroyers. Two of the Victory-II destroyers exploded. Another eight were crippled.

This wasn't the final act, though.

Like an avenging phoenix, the final wave of the attack emerged from hyperspace. RSS Republic, leading a flying wedge of Victory-II Star Destroyers and Venator class Destroyers, dropped out of hyperspace just twenty kilometres short of the enemy formation. They didn't fire. To do so would have been an effective announcement of their presence.

Instead, they drove into the separatist formation, guns quiet, aiming for the Invisible Hand and her escorts, five additional Providence Class Dreadnoughts. It was more than fifteen seconds before the separatist fleet even noticed them. Most of the fleet was already fighting for its collective life, lucrehulks breaking formation to engage the Victory-II destroyers head to head. Various sub-commanders were trying to match formations of lucrehulk battleships against individual star destroyers. Unfortunately, the destroyers weren't cooperating.

Anakin was watching from the bridge as the action took place.

"Tell Yasra to get her squadron further to the left." She snapped to a communications ensign. "We need to engulf these people, not just push them away from the planet."

On a chair nearby, Ahsoka was busy playing with Yi-Sun-shin. The Hieracosphinx was sprawled over her lap, all six limbs sprawling bonelessly.

"You little stinker." The Admiral said, turning around to see the feline grab one of the Togruta's hands, and begin to fight it, wrestling back and forth.

_[I like her. Can we keep her?]_

_[No.]_ His bondmate replied, her eyes crinkling slightly with amusement.

It wasn't long, though, until it was time to head for the flight deck.

-0-0-0-

Relative to Coruscant, the Republic was at a considerable altitude, and so the fighters dropped towards the planet. The two fighters were Eta-2 Actis-class interceptors, more capable by a considerable margin than the Delta-7B Aethersprite interceptors the order had started the war flying, although they were less than six metres long. The system primary flashed off of the upper layers of atmosphere, reflected off of stratospheric clouds, formed of near-frozen water. Anakin's decorations were yellow, while Ahsoka favoured a stock red, although she'd personalised the pattern on the wings.

Ahead of them was a Venator class cruiser, late into the fight. They pulled up the avoid it, taking a few moments to play, as they skimmed the hull at a very low altitude, where one slip or sneeze would likely mean that they smashed into the dorsal armour plating of the massive star destroyer, weaving over the top of the superstructure at perhaps thirty feet, manuevering in perfect synchronicity, until they reached the far side of the ship, and dropped further towards the planet's surface with a wingover, hurtling towards the massive exchange of fire taking place perhaps ninety thousand feet above the planet's surface.

After a few moments, they adjusted course, rolling upwards again as a flight of clone-piloted Arc-170 starfighters rose past them, before darting into the thick of the fighting. The engagement, despite it being between starships, with an entire system and low orbit to fight in, was being fought at ranges more comparable to an ancient nabooan sea battle, fought with chemical weapons so primitive that they were unusual to find in a museum as originals. The two interceptors darted between a Venator and a providence class dreadnought, passing the control tower of the latter with metres to spare, still enjoying themselves, and virtually unnoticed, as they rolled under the belly of a second dreadnought, firing its forward guns towards the oncoming republic fleet.

Ahead of them, a broadside from the main battery of a Venator, fighting at perhaps seventy metres from the dreadnought it was engaging sent a fireball into their path, perhaps two hundred metres at the most ahead of the two interceptors. They barrelled through the cloud, relying on the force for the few moments when they were totally blind.

Ahead of them, a massive beam erupted from the broadside of a Venator, shattering a CIS frigate with a single shot, as a lone escape pod rocketed into the side of the star destroyer, shattering when it hit the hull of the massive warship. Anakin and Ahsoka retained their close formation, flying close enough together to be able to exchange grins through their canopies.

"be-woo weep." Anakin heard, from Artoo. The astrodroid had found the chancellor.

"Lock onto him, Artoo." Anakin replied, receiving a cheep of acknowledgement. "Snips; General Grievous's ship is dead ahead. The one crawling with vulture droids." He told his padawan, allowing a certain amount of resignation to creep into his voice.

"I see it, Master." Ahsoka replied. "This is going to be really fun." It wasn't Obi-Wan level sarcasm, but the old man was six hours away, and Anakin had no intention of endangering the Chancellor for the simple reason of flying with him.

Ahead of the two Jedi interceptors, their sensors showed dozens of vulture droids lifting from the hull of Invisible Hand, switching into flight configuration, and streaming towards the fighters.

"Oddball, do you copy?" Anakin asked.

"Copy, Red Leader." The clone replied.

"Mark my position, form your squad up behind me." Anakin instructed him.

"We're on your six, General Skywalker. Set s-foils in attack position."

The clones matched the maneuvers of the two Jedi, as the horde of vulture droids and tri-fighters rose up to meet them.

"This is where the fun begins." Anakin said, as he and Ahsoka opened their own lifting surfaces.

Ahsoka replied with a grin, as they oriented their fighters towards each other, just for an instant.

Then the formation passed into and through the droids, firing steadily, destroying a number of droids in their first run. It wasn't long, though, before a droid starfighter wrapped around behind an Arc-170, and riddled the rear fuselage with gunfire, killing all three of the flight crew as the craft exploded.

A flight of four tri-fighters tucked in behind two more clones, who turned to fight them, struggling against the more manuverable craft.

"They're all over me…" The transmission trailed off with a hiss of static.

"I'm going to go and help them!" Ahsoka said, beginning the manuever that would take her into the thick of the dogfight that had developed.

"They're doing their job, Snips." Anakin replied. "We need to do ours. And that means rescuing the Chancellor." As he said it, another clone piloted starfighter was set on fire, and went tumbling out of control towards the planetary surface.

"Skyguy?" She asked, flicking a control on the top of her cockpit briefly, after feeling a number of impacts on her wings.

"I see them. Buzz droids." He diagnosed, dropping in towards her fighter. Outside her cockpit, she could see the droids deploying, an evil chuckle transmitting through the spaceframe, as the droids crawled over her fighter, tearing fragments off of it and starting to attack the control surfaces.

"Ar-Seven, be careful." She called. The droid replied by deploying its little surprise, a turreted blaster pistol, with an integrated targeting camera. It began firing at the droids, quickly clearing them from the wing it could see, although they were able to considerably damage the control surfaces first. "They're shutting down all the controls!" she told Anakin.

"Move to the right so I can get a clear shot at them." He replied. She didn't even think about it, and followed the instruction, before holding as steady as possible. He still shot the right stabiliser off of her fighter.

"Woah!" she yelled.

"Sorry." She looked around. Her wing was free of buzz droids, however, so she was going to let him off, if he gave her a big kiss. The battle continued to rage around the two Jedi, and they flew through several more fireballs, again, trusting the Force to avoid debris. Then Ahsoka's cockpit started to fog, where the buzz droids had punctured the line that powered the tiny sip-nozzle, sending streamers of frost all over her canopy. "My cockpit is fogged. I can't see a thing." She reported, regretting setting her sip-nozzle temperature to negative figures. As her vision became more obscured, they passed over another Venator, the main battery of which was firing a rapid, steady volley.

"Follow me." Anakin told her, moving into the lead. "The general's command ship is dead ahead.

"Sure thing." Ahsoka replied, allowing the yellow starfighter to move into the lead, and switching over to her forward landing camera, giving her a good view of the streams of laser fire pounding out from the massive warship, even though it had been directly engaged by the RSS Republic herself, the massive warship firing salvos from more than 70 broadside turbolasers and ion cannons.

"Ah, Master, have you noticed the shields are still up?" she asked, in a slightly agitated tone, and with quite a bit of sarcasm.

"Sorry, Snips." Anakin replied, his tone slightly brisk. He pulled up his targeting computer, before firing a volley, aiming at one of the massive generators powering the hanger shield, sending it exploding outwards, before the two interceptors made a moderately unpowered crash landing inside the hanger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will admit that this chapter is based on the opening battle sequence from Episode III in places. However, everything is in my own words, excepting some of the dialogue, as there is no other way to say those things in Pilot.


	7. The Battle of Coruscant, Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor content warning: this chapter is heavily based on the original scenes from the film, although I have made a significant number of changes.

Both of the Jedi had planned their landings, more or less. There had been a basic assumption in pre-mission planning, between all of the other important matters, that the best landing they could hope for aboard Invisible Hand was going to be a crash landing. As such, both Jedi aimed their starfighters into the largest concentrations of battledroids, mowing down a fair number of the security units before the starfighters came to a halt.

Ahsoka was first to disembark, ejecting R7, before flipping lithely out of her cockpit, and landing in the middle of a unit of battledroids, her green lightsabers thrumming with energy as they sliced apart the droids and a coruscating blur, parrying shots and downing droids in the same motion, as they scattered components and bisected droids all over the deck plating surrounding the young Jedi, while R7 did his own thing, duelling battledroids with his blaster turret, scoring carefully aimed hits on the various droid units he targeted, incapaciting them with precision shots targeting datacentres and optical sensors.

Anakin, who hadn't removed his restraint belts in preparation for bailing out, was a few seconds behind his Padawan, making sure he ejected Artoo before clambering out of his starfighter, and dropping to the deck. His blue saber flashed a counterpoint to Ahsoka's pair, with a deeper hum reflecting the increased diameter of the hilt to fit his hand, and was no less effective, as he scythed down the droids surrounding his starfighter, utilising the longer, less rapid strokes of Shien, as opposed to Ahoka's preferred Ataru form, with its quicker, more rapid strokes, her two weapons often working together in harmony .

It wasn't long before the two were guarding each other's backs, as the last handful of b1 units collapsed to the deck, shattered either by lightsaber strokes or their own reflected blaster fire. Twisting around, Anakin determined, from the lack of incoming fire or visible droid units, that they were temporarily safe, and powered down his lightsaber, Ahsoka following suit after her own brief scan, he was pleased to see, rather than blindly trusting her master.

Then they came together, exhilarated by the brief combat, and the adrenaline fuelled flight that had preceded it. It wasn't hard to excuse it, and Ahsoka wasted no time jumping onto her master, wrapping her arms around his neck, and kissing him enthusiastically. Anakin responded with equal enthusiasm, hooking an arm beneath his Padawan, and supporting her as they kissed, for a few long moments, before they broke apart.

"I love you." He repeated, once again using the mantra he found allowed him to crystallise his feelings for the small Togruta. She grinned, dancing in close on her light feet, and dabbing a kiss onto his cheek, before darting backwards as Artoo finally started trilling.

"That's right, Artoo. Locate the chancellor." Anakin said. The droid was almost a member of the family, where he was concerned, and so got quite a few words of encouragement. After a few moments, Artoo tapped into the nearest datajack point, and pulled up a schematic diagram of Invisible Hand. Anakin waited for the droid to locate the most powerful man in the galactic republic, before swearing, quietly.

"Kriff it." He muttered. "It looks like the chancellor's signal is coming from the observation platform at the top of the main spire. And, even better, I sense Count Dooku as well."

"Our day gets better and better." Ahsoka replied. "We don't just get to rescue the chancellor, but also to bring down Count Dooku himself."

"I admire your enthusiasm, Padawan." Anakin replied, with a slight smile. "He shouldn't be too much for the pair of us."

"Anything else, Master?" Ahsoka asked, bouncing again in a most distracting way, even inside her Jedi robes.

"No. Let's get going. We've got a politician to save, after all."

The two Jedi set off, towards the observation tower, presumably containing both Dooku and the Supreme Chancellor. Artoo and R7 made moves to follow them.

"Guys, I need you two to stay here with the ships." Anakin said, tossing a comlink to Artoo. "If I need to contact you, or you have any news for us, use this." He received a tootle in reply.

Stepping into the corridor, the two Jedi made their way towards the nearest elevator, lightsabers drawn but not ignited. Both were aware, for different reasons, that the holocams were tracking them. Ahsoka could feel their movement through the passive echolocation of her montrals, while Anakin, more reliant on visual data, had noticed several lenses glinting as they were tracked.

The elevator was about two hundred yards away from the lift shaft. Anakin pressed the panel to summon the elevator, before they heard a tell-tale sound approaching them down the corridor, and ignited their lightsabers just before three destroyer droids emerged, deployed their shields, and opened fire on the pair of Jedi.

Batting away the stream of bolts, they waited for the elevator, pounding on the button to summon it several times each, before it finally arrived, and the doors slid open.

Ahsoka backed in first, obeying a stern mental shove from her master, before the door slid shut, and they relaxed for a moment.

“Drop your weapons! I said drop 'em.” There was a rattle of servos as various weapons were aimed at the heads of the two Jedi. Anakin glanced at Ahsoka, before they spun in opposite directions, igniting their lightsabers, although Anakin held back slightly, allowing Ahsoka to turn the corridor full of droids into spare parts.

She glanced back at him with an offended look. His response was to spread his hands expansively. They both chuckled slightly, before Anakin hit the control button on the elevator, setting it for the observation deck.

About halfway there, it stopped.

“You didn’t lean on the stop button, did you, Snips?” Anakin asked, lowering the small Togruta back to the deck, from where he’d been firmly kissing her. She cooperated in allowing him to stand up by unwrapping her arms from around his head.

“No. It’s over there.” She replied, indicating a point ninety degrees to the left of where she’d been backed into the wall.

Both of them, almost in sync, glanced at the top of the elevator.

“It’ll be a long climb.” Anakin mused.

Ahsoka, after a few moments, looked at him with smouldering eyes.

“You’re sure you don’t want to… stay here… for a bit?” she asked.

“Ah… Snips, we’re in the middle of a battle here…” Anakin replied, grinning, before pulling out his comlink, and reading the identifier off of the lift panel.

“Artoo. Do you copy? Activate elevator 31174.”

There was no response. Glaring at the panel, Anakin tried again. “Artoo, do you hear me? Activate elevator 31174.”

There was a lurch, and the elevator started hurtling downwards at a speed in excess of anything remotely legal.

“Stop, stop! Artoo, we need to be going up”

The lift ground to a halt within seconds, throwing both Jedi to the floor in a not entirely unappreciated heap.

About thirty or forty seconds later, the lift ground to a halt at the top of the observation tower. “Wheeop.” Artoo muttered over the comlink.

“Thanks, Artoo.” Anakin replied.

The droid responded with a “Wee Wee Woop.”

Ahead of them, there was a panoramic view, showing the spectacular light show of a main fleet engagement, although a quadrant of it was interrupted by the imposing broadside of the RSS Republic, which, Anakin noticed, was saving turbolaser fire for any CIS unit with the temerity to approach and attempt to assist the Invisible Hand. The separatist flagship, on the other hand, was being steadily pounded with the more than 60 ion cannons mounted on the star destroyer, keeping it as ineffective as possible during the boarding action, and producing a near-constant storm of blue light.

Anakin had been listening to the radio transmissions of elite squadrons of the 501st and their attached commando squads as they moved through the ship, the clones overwhelming elements of the droid forces being carried aboard the flagship, and capturing critical areas of the ship, such as engineering and the reactor compartment, along with the engine room.

It was a distraction, and they wouldn't be going near the bridge, which was, according to a visual reconnaissance probe, the current location of General Grievous himself. Fighting against him, particularly in a confined space with little room to manuever, wasn't a job even ARC troopers would attempt without Jedi or aerial support.

Ahead of them, facing the battle, a chair rotated to face them. In it, was seated an old man, wearing plain, dark coloured robes: the Supreme Chancellor. As they stepped down from the balcony they'd entered to room via, the two Jedi noticed that he was shackled to the chair, both of his arms secured to the appropriate armrest by an energy band.

“Chancellor.” Ahsoka said, formally bowing to the most powerful politician in the galaxy, once they were standing in front of him.

“Are you all right?” Anakin asked his friend, more informally.

“Count Dooku.” The chancellor replied, looking over their shoulders. As they turned away, neither of them noticed the look of disgust that crossed his face when their hands brushed for an instant, in the manner of lovers.

On the same balcony they’d entered via, Dooku, in his customary outfit and cape, was standing, along with a pair of super battle droids, presumably serving as his bodyguard.

Once they’d noticed him, he jumped down from the balcony, somersaulting in mid-air to make a slightly overdramatic point of how agile he was.

“Get help! You're no match for him. He's a Sith Lord.” Palpatine called to the two Jedi.

“He hasn’t killed us yet.” Ahsoka replied, aiming the comment at both politician and oncoming sith lord. Both Jedi discarded their outer robes, leaving their arms clear of entangling fabric, and ignited their lightsabers. To Anakin’s surprise, Ahsoka left one of her blades on her belt, taking up a hauntingly familiar opening stance.

“He’s been giving you lessons.” Anakin muttered.

“Your swords, please, Master Jedi.” Dooku said, urbanely. “We don't want to make a mess of things in front of the Chancellor.”

“This is the last time we shall meet.” Anakin replied.

“I’m sure.” Dooku said, as the two launched themselves at him.

Their initial rush drove him backwards a few feet, lightsaber flashing as he parried their attacks, constantly moving. Despite the best efforts of both Jedi, and their long practice working together, he was able to avoid their blows, or even direct them at the other, several times forcing one of the two to have to parry an attack from the other.

After a couple of savage minutes, Dooku managed to isolate Ahsoka, knocking Anakin away from the fight long enough to focus on the weaker, smaller combatant. He launched a series of blows, each of which pushed her further off balance, before he finished with a sai cha stroke, which she was unable to fully block, but managed to deflect away from her neck, although her lightsaber was knocked out of her hand in the process. Using the Force to throw herself away from Dooku, Ahsoka scrabbled for her second lightsaber, as Anakin cut his way through the two super battle droids, and advanced on the Sith Lord, his terror and alarm very obvious in the Force.

The final attack Dooku launched against the slim Togruta, though, was far more ruthless: he summoned a super battle droid torso from the wreckage on the stairs, holding off Anakin with his other hand as the human rushed him, lightsaber flashing, before slamming it into the left side of Ahsoka's torso, launching her fifteen feet into a wall, before she came to rest in a limply twitching heap.

"SNIPS!" Anakin yelled, as she landed. He looked at the small Togruta for a moment, before attacking once again, in deadly earnest; his anger suddenly lending him a huge amount of additional power, as he flew at the sith lord, driving him back with slashes and cuts from his saber, keeping him permanently on the defensive, never giving him a chance to counter-attack. It was, he knew, his only chance to defeat the sith.

Eventually, the Sith Lord's guard slipped for a moment. Anakin didn't give him time to recover, and slugged him with a wave of force energy, smashing Dooku into a support pillar, and pinning him there for a few seconds, before the Sith slumped to his knees, lightsaber falling from his grasp. Anakin didn't even hesitate. As far as he was concerned, Dooku was still a hostile combatant, and his hand was extended, trying to recall his lightsaber. His lightsaber plunged forwards, the azure blade searing through the chest of the Sith Lord, directly intersecting his heart in a shiak strike, and into the durasteel pillar behind him. The passage of the searing blade caused Dooku's heart to explode into a cloud of steam, based heavily on organic esters and proteins.

Anakin didn't wait for the body of the man to fall back against the pillar before deactivating his lightsaber, and turning. He sprinted over to the small Togruta, lying totally helpless on the floor, and reached out through the Force, dreading what he would find.

To his relief, the togruta's life force was still strong. Her left ribs, which had been facing the droid torso at the time, were barely intact. Her right montral, which had taken the full force of the impact against the wall, was heavily bruised, showing signs of damage to the internal structure, although it had just about held against the impact. The lekku that came from the base of it was bruised heavily, the mottled patterns of bruising already forming below the brightly patterned skin. Anakin didn't want to think about what would have happened if the strike had landed against her head instead of her ribcage, and the crash vest nearly all Jedi wore beneath their robes if they expected to encounter a hostile Force user.

"Jedi Skywalker?" He heard the chancellor call, sounding more than slightly annoyed.

Anakin stood up, ready to commit murder in that moment, before reluctantly reaching out with the force, and disabling the restraints holding the chancellor in his chair. Then he crossed back to Ahsoka, and gently kissed the centre of her forehead. Despite knowing that moving a patient with a head injury and possible internal and spinal injuries was a Bad Idea, he nonetheless scooped her onto his shoulder, before crossing to the elevator, chancellor in tow.

When he got there, however, the elevator wasn't functional. Looking at the control panel, he read off the number assigned to that particular unit. "Artoo." He said, pulling out his comlink, and holding it to his lips. "Activate elevator three two two four."

The droid whistled from the far end of the comlink, crossing, Anakin assumed, to a terminal.

Suddenly, though, the ship shook, seeming to invert ninety degrees in a matter of moments, sending both droids in the hanger bay sliding down the suddenly inclined deck. In the observation tower, Anakin staggered as well, his padawan nearly slipping from his shoulder as he struggled to maintain his footing, ultimately surrendering the attempt, and instead grabbing onto the frame of the open elevator door, struggling, even with the force, to haul himself inside while supporting both Ahsoka, physically, and the chancellor, using the force.

With difficulty, the two pulled themselves up into the elevator shaft, which was pretty much horizontal, before jogging along it, heading for the hanger deck, or somewhere that wasn't the highly vulnerable observation tower.

Inevitably, of course, the ship picked that moment to right itself, suddenly turning the shaft from a walkway back into a vertical shaft, producing muttered swearing from both Anakin and the chancellor as it suddenly angled away beneath their feet, sending them sliding downwards as if on a slide, the chancellor's smooth robes causing him to travel faster than Anakin, who was still managing to protect Ahsoka from further injury.

As they slid, Anakin grabbed hold of a damaged control box, yanking them both to a stop, as the chancellor grabbed onto the Jedi knight's legs. With the extra weight, it didn't take long for the wires to part, sending them toppling towards a fast approaching elevator, presumably provided by Artoo.

Anakin glanced around, looking for something to grab onto. All he could see was a rapidly approaching girder, positioned just above a doorway, which was, fortunately or not, open. Reaching out with the force, he guided his hand to Ahsoka's belt, while his other hand reached for his own, pulling their pair of Jedi grappling hooks from the their respective belts, and firing them both off, managing to lasso the girder, and swing them both through the doorway, just as the elevator thundered past.

He landed, much to his horror, on top of Ahsoka.

There was no crunching, fortunately, and presumably, again, thanks to the crash vest. Instead, she moved, groaning, shaking her head slightly as if her ears were ringing massively.

The chancellor was fine, when Anakin glanced around to check. Barely thinking, he reached down to his belt, extracting the medpak with orange tape around it, before cracking it open, extracting one of the hypos of Togruta-safe medications from it, and jabbing the combination anti-nausea and stimpack into her arm.

She groaned again, before wrapping her arms around his neck, and opening her eyes. As she looked into his eyes, she simply kissed him, looking into the sky-blue eyes of her master with her own azure irises.

Anakin didn't care that a powerful non-Jedi was standing behind them in that moment of bliss. Then they clambered to their feet, Ahsoka staggering slightly, despite the anti-nausea medications, before beginning to jog in a straight line down the long hallway, the chancellor once again bringing up the rear.

"Where… to?" Ahsoka groaned, managing to keep up with her master and the supreme chancellor, both of whom were moving at a trot.

"Hanger bay." Anakin replied. "We need to find something that is still flyable."

A few yards further on, though, things went wrong. Around them, ray-shields sprang into life.

"Oh, Kriff." Anakin muttered, glancing around, and only confirming that the projectors were on the wrong side of the ray shields for them to be lightsabered. "Why can't they put the generators on the correct side of the shields?"

"Is there a plan, master?" Ahsoka asked, deciding to be respectful in front of the chancellor.

"We wait until someone comes to remove us." Anakin replied.

When the removers arrived, though, it was a very large platoon of battle droids, destroyer droids and super battle droids, moving in from both sides.

"Damnit." Anakin muttered. If there had been fewer droids, or if they didn't have a politician to protect, he'd have risked combat, even with Ahsoka at less than one hundred percent. As it was, they surrendered, instead. As seemed to be quite normal, they were quickly secured, Ahsoka giggling, for some reason, as both of them had their hands restrained in front of them, with force-resisting, but not, thankfully. Force-blocking, cuffs.

Then they were led onto the bridge, another platoon joining them on route with a somewhat irritated looking Artoo, and a subdued R7, with more than a few scorch marks on his chassis, and covered at all times by several wary looking battle droids.

"General Skywalker." Grievous stated; his voice low. "I thought that you were only interested in your own species, not miscegenating with filth such as a Togruta."

"General Grievous… Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies." Anakin replied, keeping his voice steady. "I thought you'd be taller." He had a fair idea how the cyborg had learnt of their relationship, much to his irritation. Ahsoka glared at the cyborg. Anakin swore that several frayed threads on the edge of his robe ignited with the ferocity of it.

He received a roar of frustration in reply. "Jedi scum. Your lightsabers will make a fine addition to my collection."

"Not this time! Artoo!" Anakin yelled, in response. The small droid began spinning, beeping and producing every other noise he could think of, and activating all of the various nozzles fitted to him, including a CO2 extinguisher nozzle, a smokescreen, and even the water-mister he'd been fitted with for gardening by the factory. Anakin wasted no time summoning his own lightsaber from Grievous, pulling Ahsoka's after it, before slicing open his own cuffs, then hers, pushing the hilts into her hands, but mostly leaving R7 to protect her. Grievous advanced with an electro-staff, and battle commenced.

Anakin switched very quickly into Soresu form, although it wasn't his strongest form, as the massive cyborg advanced, electrostaff spinning. The first attack was aimed at his head, and attempted to pivot around a swiftly interposed lightsaber, and swing up into his ribcage, forcing Anakin to twist away to one side, the blade of his lightsaber beheading an incautious Magnaguard that attempted an attack on his blind side while he was engaged with Grievous, following through a moment later with a slash that disabled the droid's computer systems. Then Grievous attacked again, a horizontal sweep at the left side of the Jedi's ribcage, forcing Anakin to duck, reminding him for an instant about how Ahsoka had nearly been captured, prompting a roll to the left, which allowed him to evade a swinging boot aimed at where his head would have been

Noticing that the droids were dragging away the chancellor, Ahsoka ran after him, cutting down the various units that got in her way with a little less grace than usual, before slashing through the units holding the chancellor with her remaining lightsaber, beheading both droids with diagonal cuts that came from above the chancellor's head.

After a few more frantic moments of combat, Grievous retreated, seeing Ahsoka returning to the fight, seemingly, by throwing his staff through the viewport, and then exiting through it as the air rushed out. The sudden loss of pressure nearly popped the eardrums of both Jedi before the failsafe armour plates dropped into place. Taking advantage of not needing to breath to make his escape, the cyborg used a magnetic cable to grab onto the ship, before walking along the outside of the hull and clambering into an escape pod, first launching the rest empty, in order to trap the two Jedi and the chancellor on the starship.

It wouldn't have been a problem.

Then the main docking bay exploded, and it became a serious problem. On the external sensors, Anakin became aware that the clones had taken all the critical sections, and then retreated just before the explosion. A number, he noticed on the radar screen above the navigation controls, had exited afterwards, relying on recovery shuttles to pick them up before they made unpowered re-entry.

"All the escape pods have been launched!" Ahsoka called to Anakin, as the two Jedi dashed forwards, heading for the flight controls. Anakin dropped into the pilot's seat, while Ahsoka opted for communications. They both locked their harnesses on, as the chancellor did a few moments later, not wasting time by speaking to one another.

Remembering the very basic training he'd received for landing an aerofoil training aircraft, Anakin figured out a solution, his hands flying over the console.

“Steady . . . Attitude . . . eighteen degrees” Ahsoka read off of a display.

There was a beeping from Artoo.

“Pressure rising. We've got to slow this wreck down. Open all hatches, extend all flaps, and drag fins.” Anakin instructed his co-pilot, who helped him deploy every single surface that could provide any aerobraking.

“Temp steady. Hatches open, flaps extended, drag fins...” Anakin said, looking over his displays.

A massive shudder caused him to send a glance over various status consoles, before he turned to Ahsoka, smiling or seeming to, anyway.

"Don't worry, Snips." He quipped. "We're still flying half a ship…"

She turned slightly green in response. She trusted her master, but when he made cracks like that, he knew he was very close to death.

“Now we're really picking up speed... I'm going to shift a few degrees and see if I can slow us down.” Anakin said, pulling up on the controls.

Ahsoka provided a commentary on the temperature. “We’re heating up - twelve thousand... thirteen thousand...”

“What’s our speed?” He asked her, fighting the controls.

“Eight plus sixty-forty. Eight plus sixty-twenty. Eight plus sixty. Temp ten thousand, nine thousand... we're in the atmosphere ...” Ahsoka read out, before the ship jolted, as it hit the upper layers of Coruscant’s atmosphere.

By a minor miracle, Anakin managed to keep the forward half of the ship from tumbling as it hurtled through the atmosphere of Coruscant, external surfaces heating up rapidly, and scattering sections of burning, red hot debris from its flight path.

He pointed out a control to Ahsoka. "Grab that, keep us level." He told her. It was at her station, and he hoped that it didn't actually do anything other than provide attitude adjustments.

“We’re going to be all right, Snips.” Anakin said. “Easy, Artoo. Hang on, this may get a little rough. We lost our heat shields.”

Glancing back at her displays, Ahsoka began reading off the hull temperatures again. “Five thousand. Three thousand . . . two thousand. Fireships on the left and the right.” She announced, as a number of the airborne appliances arrived, taking up stations around the ship, and beginning to spray the hull with retardants and foam.

“We'll take you in.” Anakin heard over the radio. He couldn’t relax.

“Copy that. Landing strip's straight ahead.” Ahsoka replied, holding on for dear life.

“We're coming in too hot.” Anakin muttered.

With a fair amount of Force manipulation, mostly in the form of lifting the craft as much as he was able to, in order to alter the trajectory of several megatons of starship, he managed to bring the battered fuselage down in one piece, sliding down a commercial runway, and decimating a guidance tower with a fin as it passed, before grinding to a very relieving stop.

Then the blue lights and sirens arrived outside, and rescue crews were cutting their way in through the viewport to take off the two Jedi, their astromech droids, and the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

As the bridge was cut open, Ahsoka glanced at a mildly stunned looking Anakin, lurched behind a console, and vomited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very heavily rewritten from the original version of this chapter, which is absolutely atrocious.


	8. A News Conference, followed by a re-union

Stepping out of the requisitioned speeder bus that had brought them from the landing strip where they'd crashed the Invisible Hand to the main landing area of the Senate tower, the two Jedi were confronted by the two things that they most wanted to avoid: the media, with a three rank phalanx of cameras, reporters and assorted boom microphones, and a formation of the great and good of the Senate tower. Ahsoka, as the junior team member, simply raised her hood, disappearing as much as she could into the shadows of her robe, spluttering slightly from the smell of smoke that infused every item of clothing they were wearing. Anakin, whose robes lacked any form of hood, had no option to do so, and, as the senior member of the team, had the responsibility of facing the cameras anyway, regardless of his personal interest in doing so.

"A parade." Ahsoka muttered, quietly. "We save one politician and they give us a parade in front of the media."

"I know, Snips." Anakin replied, softly. "Now start smiling at the cameras, before they decide you're the next sith apprentice."

Reluctantly, Ahsoka started to grin a little under her hood, drawing on her memories of winning a podrace, what seemed like a whole lifetime before, and imaging she was on the flat ground of the winner's enclosure. Anakin drew on his own experiences, managing to put up a facade of being happy in front of the cameras.

"Jedi Skywalker?" He heard. It was a war reporter from HNN, which was one of the few sources of news and opinion that he actually trusted. "Huw Griffiths, HNN. There are reports that count Dooku has been killed in the battle above Coruscant. Can you give any information about his presumed death?"

"Huw, I can say that the current status of Count Dooku is presumed dead." Anakin replied. "Until we recover his body, assuming that it hasn't burnt up during an uncontrolled re-entry, I cannot confirm his death." I know I killed him. It doesn't mean he is dead. He felt a little guilty over dropping into spokesbeingese, but it was the best option under the circumstances.

"General Skywalker?" He heard. It was a lethan twi'lek reporter, wearing the tabard of Coruscant Hourly News. Most of what they reported was celebrity gossip and entertainment news, rather than actual news, in his opinion. "Did you kill Count Dooku?"

"I was present at his presumed death." Anakin replied.

"You say presumed," she replied. "Why is the death of such a significant individual only being presumed?"

"Miss Cjl'hilm," he said, reading her name off of her nametag. "Standard military procedure is not to confirm the death of any combatant until the body of said combatant is in the possession of the military force. Until we have recovered the body, I can give no further information."

She looked a bit frustrated, and he felt few compunctions about his next action. "You want to go and file your story." He said, waving his hand, and using the standard mind-trick tone. I know I shouldn't have done that on galactic holovision, but... He grinned slightly.

"Kalisha Jilini, west rim news!" He heard. When he turned towards the insistent voice, he saw that the speaker was a particularly well-known reporter who was liable to walk into a lit lightsaber in an alleyway. "General, what is your reaction to the suggestion that you have been sleeping with your Padawan since she was assigned to you three years ago, primarily as a sexual slave?"

Anakin looked at her. Suddenly, her hands rose to her throat and she started to make gurgling noises. Forcing down the surge of anger he felt, he lowered his hand, and unclenched his fist at his side. He hadn't even realised that he was using one of the classic sith attacks in his outrage.

There were screams of horror, a few chuckles, and even what sounded like a couple of claps from the assembled pressbeings, as the human reporter clambered to her feet.

"That is my reply to your insinuations." Anakin replied, his voice low and very deadly, suggesting that she was a few threads from being bisected. "No deliberate or intentional sexual interactions have taken place between myself and Ahsoka Tano, regardless of the persistent attempts by certain members of the press to insinuate that I have at any time had sexual intercourse with her."

No-one was particularly inclined to challenge the toweringly angry Jedi as Kalisha was helped to one side.

He just really hoped that the council wouldn't believe him to have deliberately throttled a journalist live on air, regardless of what she said to try and get a reaction. He also really hoped no-one would pick up on the qualifying verb.

There were a few more questions to field, of course. He clarified a number of non-classified military details, such as the number of republic military casualties.

"Sadly, in the battle," he told the news reporter. "More than seven million clones lost their lives, protecting the freedom of the Republic. Alongside them, more than six hundred thousand volunteers gave their lives in space and on the ground, many of them members of the Galactic Red Cross, and two members of Coruscant Rescue Ops Fire Team Three who were killed while attempting to bring the fire aboard the Invisible Hand under control."

The reporter had the decency to look horrified at the sheer number of casualties.

"The republic lost more than one thousand star destroyers, and better than three thousand acclamator assault ships." Anakin stated. "More than thirty thousand starfighters were destroyed during the battle." He had been given the figures before he landed at the Senate tower. They were a chilling reminder that the war was costing huge numbers of lives, which was largely ignored. Clones weren't valued enough to really matter to most sentient beings.

Another reporter came in. "Alex Gillespie, GNC." The galactic news channel was reliable, and fairly apolitical, anyway. "What is the current status of the fleet?"

"The fleet is currently engaged with the remains of the separatist flotilla." Anakin stated. Anyone with a pair of macrobinoculars would be able to tell that much. As he spoke, a flash was visible behind him. His earbud confirmed the source. "That was the main reactor of the last providence class dreadnought present in the Coruscant system letting go."

"Thank you for your time, Master Jedi."

With that final question the journalistic scrum dissipated leaving the second inevitable wave of public figures behind them to come forward. Ahsoka took the opportunity to employ her comparatively low rank and disappear into the background, with a certain amount of sympathy for her Master's plight. If there was one thing that he liked less on galactic media, it was the galactic political establishment.

Bail Organa was one of the very few politicians with the courage to approach the still smouldering Jedi. "The Senate cannot thank you enough," he said. "The end of Count Dooku will surely bring an end to this war and an end to the Chancellor's draconian security measures."

"I wouldn't be so hopeful, Senator." Anakin replied. "I am fairly sure that this war will continue until General Grievous joins Count Dooku in whatever plane defeated Sith lords and their associates end up in."

"Is that what the Chancellor said to you?" Bail asked, curiously.

"It is certainly what he seems to intend." Anakin stated. Out of the corner of his eye, Anakin noticed a figure, with a slightly bulging stomach, wearing a traditional Nabooan hooded robe.

"Senator?" He asked. "My padawan and I need to go and consult with our friend over there." Bail glanced his left. He couldn't identify the hooded figure, but he fairly reasonably assumed that a Jedi at that range would have a fair idea who it was, and turned to leave.

Anakin was briefly blown away by the sensation of Padmé's mind in such close proximity to his. The two hadn't been very physically close since they ended their physical relationship. But what made it even more magical than a simple reunion was the sense of the two smaller presences intertwined with hers.

"Did they tell you it was twins?" He asked her, abruptly, as they moved into close enough range that their speech would not be audible from more than a few yards away.

"At the clinic, this morning." She replied, for the first time giving Anakin an idea of what the idiom glowing meant, when assigned to a female object as he looked into her face. "There wasn't time to tell you."

"Padmé?" Anakin asked, hesitantly.

"No, Anakin." She replied. "In this day and age, the stigma of bastardry is rarely recognised by galactic law. On planets like Agmar," she said, referencing the planet generally considered to be the most backward and primitive in the civilised galaxy. "It still features in the legal code, but on Coruscant, as long as you're willing to sign a piece of paper that says you were the father, there isn't any stigma at all."

"What about Naboo?"

"Our relationship was all over the sludgenews outlets for a while." Padmé said. "I'm sure that they'll be a tiny bit irritated at the polls, but I've got a good twenty percent majority, and the real conservatives wouldn't vote for a woman anyway." When she looked around. "Ahsoka." She greeted Anakin's padawan. "You're looking remarkably recovered."

"It was a while ago, Senator." Ahsoka replied.

Then Padmé took a step back. "Ani!" She gasped. "She's seventeen."

"What?" Anakin asked.

The Senator rounded on the Jedi Knight, looking extremely angry, and quite capable of physically overpowering him, despite the discrepancy in their sizes, and her delicate condition. "How long?" She demanded.

"How long what?" Anakin asked.

"How long have you been sleeping with her?" She asked, still in Krayt Dragon mode.

"Only once." He said. "We were both drunk, I'd had a few more than her, and it ended up happening while we were both too out of it to know better."

"Anakin, this is not a drunken one night stand!" She snapped. "When?"

"Ten days ago." He replied, nervously.

"And exactly what have you said to her since?" Padmé demanded.

"How did you know anything at all is conceivably happening between us?" Anakin asked.

"She's mirroring you, she's constantly slightly presenting to you, and her eyes generally aren't anywhere else but where you are."

 _Vaping Force!_  Anakin thought.  _Is it that obvious?_

"Tell me that you have at least been using protection."

"We were drunk." Anakin repeated. "It happened once."

"She's in love with you." Padmé replied, her voice very low and quiet, but nonetheless very threatening despite that. "And if you dare play with her affections, or if I feel you are in any way taking advantage of her, I will go straight to Obi-Wan and tell him."

For more than a few moments Anakin was quietly stunned. This was the Padmé he had seen making impassioned speeches in the Senate, decrying the state of the galaxy, not the relatively vulnerable and unsure, if rather physically passionate young woman he had been in a relationship with for more than two years.

Then, Ahsoka stepped up to the mark. "Senator?" She asked. "Is it wrong?"

With that simple sentence, she broke down the sudden barrier of fury that had been building between the two adults.

"Both of you, come." She said, assertively. "It'll be easier to talk over a meal."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Padmé's apartment was on the top floor of a government building, to be precise the Senate Apartment Complex. At some point in the galaxy's past, a bean counter had decided that the most efficient way to house the great and good of the galaxy was to build a spacescraper for them to live in. Anakin had always been somewhat sceptical of the logic, primarily on the grounds that it considerably reduced the number of bombs that would be required to knock off most of the galaxy's senior politicians.

That said, the view from the top floor balcony was excellent.

This particular night, the highly competent chef assigned to the Senator had produced a large gooberfish risotto, garnished with a variety of herbs and spices. Instead of the usual rice-based dish, instead, a fibrous equivalent based on longchain proteins had been used. As far the humans were concerned it tasted like rice that was a little richer than usual.

Ahsoka, on the other hand, was in a position where she didn't have worry about overeating, or the usual consequences of eating grain-based dishes designed for humanoid omnivores, which would usually, at the least, be very uncomfortable for her, and leave her on the refresher for most of the night with a severe case of constipation. In the longer term, there were far more severe consequences in store for the Togruta who over-indulged in products such as non-togruta-specific cakes; potentially, she could destroy the functionality of her pancreas. Even with the advanced medical technology available, it wouldn't be a pleasant experience for her to go through.

Over dinner, the conversation was fairly banal, focusing on mutual acquaintances, war stories, and a long list of anecdotes from Padmé about some of the things she'd walked into Senator's offices and found them doing. Anakin had heard a few of them, but they were entirely new to Ahsoka, who was very much watching her table manners, feeling out of place in the official surroundings, and while eating off of what appeared to be actual china plates with silver cutlery, as opposed to the duraplast table settings she was used to as a member of the Jedi Order.

"Well, I needed to pay a visit to Senator Gobbins." She said, referring to one of the representatives of a smaller sector in the mid-rim. "I wanted to try and get his support for the Clone Rights Bill. So, I walk into his outer office, and I can tell the window is open straight away from the traffic noise. I go in, knocking first. Outside the window, I can see a droid, just a bit above a traffic lane, with a green light on top of it. And the senator is standing in the open window, with a set of golf clubs, practicing."

"He was hitting the balls… out of the window?" Anakin asked, having not heard that particular tale before.

"Right into the traffic lanes." Padmé confirmed. "CSF had had a few reports of narrow misses with golf balls, so it was something they were interested to know."

Ahsoka giggled slightly. It was a slightly burbling giggle. Anakin looked carefully at the bottle of wine that had been put out on the table. He knew he and Padmé had had one glass each. The bottle was empty, except for a few bits of liquid in the bottom.

"Snips." He said, sternly. "How much have you had from the bottle?"

His reply was a bit of a hiccup.

Without really looking, he firmly used the Force to confiscate her wineglass. She made a half-hearted grab for it, but it was already out of her reach. The togruta nearly ended up planting her face on the table.

Padmé just watch the byplay, before giggling slightly.

"Have you got the guest bed made up?" Anakin asked.

"I've got the guest double made." She replied, with a slightly arch look at her former boyfriend. "I assumed that you'd both be wanting it tonight."

Ahsoka giggled again.

"Well, I'll go and pour her into it." Anakin said. Reaching out with the Force, he took a firm grip on Ahsoka's shoulders with the Force, before hoisting her out of the chair, floating the weakly struggling padawan along the corridor, and into the bedroom, before pulling back the covers with his other hand, and dropping her firmly into the bed, before dropping the covers over her, leaving her fully clothed in her robes, largely in the hope that she'd sleep it off.

Then he returned to the main room, to find that Padmé had cleared the table, and was in the process of activing the holovision, and trying to find something that wasn't conflict-related.

"How is she?" Padmé asked.

"Gurgling happily." Anakin replied. "She'll be snoring like a rancor when I go in to join her."

Then he sat down. "Now, tell me about our children." He said.

Padmé sat down as well, in the armchair she'd brought with her from Varykino, and started to fill in the newly expectant father on all of the little details.


	9. A terrible vision of what may come

When Anakin finally crept into the bedroom rather pointedly set aside by Padmé for him  _and_ Ahsoka, he found that his padawan was curled up in bed, knees pressed to her chest, looking almost indescribably cute. He couldn't help reaching out, and just running a tender finger down the nearest surface of her right montral.

When she didn't stir, almost as a precaution, he checked her breathing. It was fine, of course. Smiling, he removed his tunic, clambering into the clean pyjamas that he'd accidentally left behind, and that Padmé had kept for him. Then, once he was dressed. he clambered into the bed, taking possession of his share of the covers, and went to sleep, feeling Ahsoka once again snuggle next to him.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

With a gasp, Anakin jerked upright, staring straight ahead, and seeing the door to the main apartment. It wasn't what he was focused on. A series of scenes were practically embedded into his mind forever.

Ahsoka being torn away from him, by overly protective council members, against both of their protestations.

Him holding a lightsaber to this Chancellor's throat. Words he couldn't hear were exchanged, and he stepped away, deactivating the weapon.

His hand removing the lightsaber hand of Mace Windu, and the man being launched out of a window by a burst of Force lightning from a hooded figure slumped on the floor.

A blue lightsaber he recognised as his own slashing down, aiming for the head of one of the members of the Bear Clan, who was looking up at his face, wide eyed and looking utterly betrayed.

Padmé standing before a hooded figure, dressed in black robes, hands clutching at her throat, her mouth forming... _His name._

Obi-wan, lightsaber drawn, overlooking a river of molten rock. "Don't try it, Anakin." He said. "I have the high ground." He ignored the warning. Obi-Wan’s lightsaber flashed as he jumped towards the Jedi master, amputating both of his legs below the knee, and his remaining organic arm at the elbow, before he rolled down the slope, almost into the lava river, leaving him almost bathed in the lava, his skin igniting from the heat.

Padmé, screaming in agony. He knew she was dying. He knew that if that future came to pass, it would be his fault.

He didn't know how many of those scenes he could prevent.

He just knew he had to try and prevent all of them.

Whatever it took. Whatever.

Then he had catapulted into consciousness, a cold sweat covering his torso.

Beside him, Ahsoka was still asleep, curled up and resting on her left side, thumb pressed against the corner of her mouth.

Gently, Anakin leant over, and kissed her, pressing his lips against her right montral. She stirred slightly, but stayed asleep.

He envied her that luxury. His odds of sleeping again were so close to zero as made no difference.

Padmé came stumbling out of her bedroom perhaps an hour later to find Anakin sitting on the sofa, a steaming mug of caf in front of him, and watching a intersystem boloball match between Commemor and Alisandor.

"I didn't know you followed boloball." She said, sitting down next to him, slightly overflowing within her nightgown, something Anakin noticed, but had no interest in exploring, even if she was going to be the mother of both of his fully human children.

"I don't." He replied, staring at a passage of play. "There isn't any Thugball on." Padmé had never quite seen the point of a sport where two teams, usually of humans or near-humans, ran at each other, carrying an oval ball that they were only allowed to pass backwards, thumping into each other with a great deal of enthusiasm.

"Oh." She said. "Is it Ahsoka?"

"No. I had a nightmare. Like I had about my mother. Before she died."

"Who?" Padmé asked, suddenly feeling very nervous.

"Both me and you. I saw myself turning to the dark side; killing you, then dying at the hands of Obi-Wan."

"What about Ahsoka?" Padmé asked.

"The dream didn't show her."

"Is it…"

"Not this time. Not if I can help it." Anakin grated, downing a third of his caf in one go.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Three hours later, Ahsoka wandered through in her underwear, consisting largely of layers of thin, lacy fabric, thoroughly inappropriate for a Jedi Padawan to own or wear, to find her master slumped in front of his datapad, with lots of information about force visions on multiple screens around him.

"Master?" She asked, gently shaking his shoulder.

"Everything is going to be all right, Snips." He said. "The council have summoned us both. Most of the members are on Coruscant at the moment."

Ahsoka looked down at him, and her eyes widened slightly.

"Much as I like you dressed that way, I'm not sure that appearing before the council in your underwear is going to give the right impression." He said, jokingly. "Go and get dressed, Padawan."

Ahsoka almost scampered away. He could hear her making excited noises as she scrambled into her robes, wearing a pair this time that had not survived more or less unpowered re-entry from orbit. It was something that left him feeling considerably more contented than usual.

Now all he had to do was to unravel those visions, and make sure that he was going to have something to live for. Whatever it took.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter than the rest, I know. This sets the remainder of the current plot rolling.


	10. Meeting the Chancellor, and the Council

Ahsoka was more or less bouncing as she clambered into her Master's airspeeder, which, curiously, seemed to be parked in Padmé's allocated space.

"We're still friends." He explained, feeling her sudden unease. "Just because we don't spend our free time together…" there was a stress on the word that told Ahsoka exactly what he meant. "It doesn't mean that we aren't friends."

The small Togruta replied by leaning across the seat, and dabbing a kiss on his cheek. She still seemed to be in the tactile stage, he realised, with a smile, although he decided that a clone patroller finding them both in the back seat of the speeder would be a trifle likely to report them to whatever authorities "Two Jedi in the back seat of a car" applied to, and put the craft into gear, and taking off, smoothly rising into one of the traffic lanes that would take him to the Jedi Temple.

Once they were cruising through the skylanes, Anakin just turned, before laying an arm over Ahsoka's shoulders, feeling both the roughness of the hand-woven woollen cloth and the tension in the narrow shoulders beneath the fabric.

"They don't cook and eat Padawan learners, you know." He said, trying to lighten her mood a little. "You're covered, Ahsoka."

"But... they'll know if we lie to them, won't they?" She asked, more than slightly nervous.

"If we lie to them, of course they'll know." Anakin replied. "But one of the things I leant from Senator Amidala is that, sometimes, you can tell the truth, but make it so misleading that it could be considered a lie."

"Give me an example." Ahsoka said, her presence noticeably loosening up in the Force.

"I slept with Ahsoka once, while we were both drunk." He stated. "At once, it is an entirely truthful statement and an entirely misleading one."

Then he reached down to the console, and flicked a small switch. Almost instantly, it sounded like they were driving through a Alderaanian concert hall, just metres away from the orchestra. It was also a fairly good piece of music, conjuring to mind a cavalry attack.

Grinning at the fact that her Master, renowned within the Order for a general disagreement with the principle of only owning those items needed to survive, was a fan of classical music, Ahsoka reached into her pocket, reassuring herself that the small packet of what smelt like sticks of jerked nerf Senator Amidala had slipped into her pocket were still present. Any meeting with the Supreme Chancellor at the Senate building was likely to take a fair while.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The Coruscant skyscape had gaps in it, Anakin noticed, looking through the haze of brown smoke, through the window of the Supreme Chancellors' office.

"Anakin, this afternoon the Senate is going to call on me to take direct control of the Jedi Council." Palpatine said. Anakin glanced at him, surprised, and very glad that Ahsoka wasn't in the room.

"The Jedi will no longer report to the Senate?" he asked.

"They will report to me . . . personally. The Senate is too unfocused to conduct a war. This will bring a quick end to things."

"I agree, but the Jedi Council may not see it that way." Anakin commented.

"There are times when we must all endure adjustments to the constitution in the name of security."

 _Another?_ Anakin wondered.  _Is this one the last…?_  "With all due respect, sir, the Council is in no mood for more constitutional amendments."

"Thank you, my friend," Palpatine replied. "But in this case I have no choice . . . this war must be won."

"Everyone will agree on that."  _Including the small, very cute Togruta in your outer office, currently playing clash of thrones on her datapad._

"Anakin, I've known you since you were a small boy. I have advised you over the years when I could ... I am very proud of your accomplishments. You have won many battles the Jedi Council thought were lost . . . and you saved my life. I hope you trust me, Anakin."

"Of course." Anakin replied, almost entirely truthfully. There was something… somewhere, that was making him start to feel nervous.

"I need your help, son." Palpatine suddenly stated.

"What do you mean?"

"I fear the Jedi. The Council keeps pushing for more control. They're shrouded in secrecy and obsessed with maintaining their autonomy . . . ideals. I find simply incomprehensible in a democracy."

Anakin blinked, before responding. "I can assure you that the Jedi are dedicated to the values of the Republic, sir."

"Nevertheless, their actions will speak more loudly than their words. I'm depending on you."

"For what? I don't understand." Anakin said, suddenly feeling very concerned.

"To be the eyes, ears, and voice of the Republic … Anakin . . . I'm appointing you to be my personal representative on the Jedi Council."

"Me? A Master? I am overwhelmed, sir, but the Council elects its own members. They will never accept this." Anakin said. Most of them saw him as a loose nuclear warhead, rolling about in the hold of a battleship, after his defence of Ahsoka. The rest saw him as a upstart, from outside their traditions, with a significant criminal record, thankfully expunged as an adult, for participation in illegal, and extremely dangerous, sports.

"I think they will . . . they need you more than you know." Palpatine said, before turning to his terminal, and calling up the first crisis of the day, as Anakin collected Ahsoka from the outer office, and headed for his airspeeder.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was a five minute drive to the Temple, and with half an hour to spare, Anakin dropped his speeder neatly into the parking bay, dropping onto the hydraulic landing gear with barely a judder or rattle, then cracked open the canopy. Ahsoka clambered out, glancing around, but all-too-quickly spotting several holocams that would notice any romantic clinches between them. Instead, they made do with a simple hug and a fairly paternal looking kiss, between the still developing horns of her montrals.

The temple was bustling, mostly with support staff, but also with Jedi, although few of them fell into the category of 'young, with no padawan or Master.' Those Jedi were on the frontlines across the galaxy, while the older generation, of those who'd trained the Masters of the current generation, taught the younglings and carried out research. Admittedly, they were still fairly keen for the occasional operational deployment, although admittedly those where they were unlikely to have to sleep in bushes or conduct foot pursuits longer than five miles.

Anakin and Ahsoka passed through the various groups, clearly on some kind of mission.

Predictably, though, in a structure full of those who are universally banned from casino resorts, it wasn't long until Obi-wan found them.

"Master." Anakin said, respectfully.

"Anakin." Obi-wan replied. "Ahsoka. Good to see you both in one piece after that business with The Invisible Hand."

"You'd have enjoyed it, Master."

"I'm sure I would have." Obi-wan said, with a slight smile. "I do so enjoy being aboard badly damaged ships when they make a crash landing." Then he turned to Ahsoka. "Are you well?" He asked.

"I'm well, Master Kenobi." She replied. "Master Skywalker managed to get those things off of my wrists." She didn't notice, as she was talking about it, that she was rubbing her wrists, almost ritualistically, as if trying to restart circulation or remove a close fitting cuff from around them. Anakin and Obi-Wan both noticed.

"Did you see the skyball last night?" Obi-wan asked hurriedly changing the subject.

"We were at Senator Amidala's." Ahsoka replied. "Her chef did us a risotto I could eat as well."

Obi-wan looked more than vaguely intrigued by that. "How did he manage it?"

Ahsoka looked a bit baffled. Anakin, fortunately, had a fair idea. "He used a carniculture vat to grow the proteins, and then shaped them into grains of rice using the processor."

"Most curious. Could the Temple kitchen manage it as well, I wonder?" Anakin shook his head, slightly. The only logical reason for Obi-Wan to be taking an interest in human-togruta compatible food was... his mind did not want to go there. Obi-Wan and Shaak-Ti... He swallowed, trying to get the image out of his mind. Since Satine had passed away, he guessed that his Master had been looking again.

"Does Master Yoda know?" He asked, instead.

"Master Yoda is aware, Anakin. We're keeping our emotions out of it."

That pretty much confirmed it was another Jedi, then.

Ahsoka, he noticed, was dancing with impatience. There were few reasons for the full Council to be present when a Padawan was summoned. All but one of them were good reasons. As Anakin had talked her into staying with him as a Padawan, and having that as her sole investment in the Order, he assumed that they weren't going to throw her out again.

"Ahsoka." He said. "Go and meditate."

"You never meditate." She replied.

"I do." He replied, slightly hotly. "Usually when you're not around. Having an energetic and impatient padawan uses a lot of energy."

He didn't quite catch which of the seventy or so of the Mandalorian salutes Ahsoka made in his direction, as she headed for a nearby meditation room, but he knew it hadn't been one of the complimentary ones.

Then, once the door was closed, Obi-wan turned back to Anakin with a look that could have punched right through a star destroyer.

"Are. You. Out. Of. Your. Bloody. Mind?" He demanded, speaking very slowly and clearly, at about ninety decibels "She's. Your. Padawan."

"Master?" Anakin asked.

"Do not play games with me, Anakin Skywalker." Obi-Wan's eyes were almost glowing yellow with fury. "She's your frakking Padawan. And you are kriffing her."

Anakin just looked at his former Master, stunned by the sudden descent into more primitive language.

"When." Obi-Wan demanded, bristling with what looked like quasi-parental outrage.

"Only a few days ago." He reassured his Master. "We had a few rounds of ale with Torrent, and woke up next to each other."

"Anakin, she's not just reacting to a one night stand. She's infatuated with you." Obi-wan stated, although Anakin could feel the rage draining out of his Master.

"Is it wrong?"

"She's your Padawan."

"Not for much longer." Anakin pointed out.

"As soon as she steps into the council chambers Shai... Master Shaak-Ti..." He corrected, rather quickly. "Will notice her body language. You will be sent outside, and she will be expected to accuse you of grooming her."

"And when she doesn't?"

"You'll be expelled faster than a dietician from a hutt's palace, and she'll end up in counselling until you are charged with rape."

Anakin just looked horrified, for a few moments.

"The council sent me to fetch both of you." Obi-wan stated. "It's probably a good idea if the council don't see you together.

Anakin nodded.

"Ahsoka meditating before a council meeting won't seem that odd." He explained. "Particularly since they are planning to promote her to knighthood. Congratulations. For both successes."

"What's the other?" Anakin asked, already knowing the answer.

"Well, Senator Amidala needed a friend. Shai... purely as a favour... went and spent a few girly nights with her, after she realised she was expecting."

"There's a bit of a gap." Anakin commented.

"Possibly. Shai was able to give her some perspective. I wouldn't have known what to say, or felt comfortable going to the clinic with her. We'd have ended up as the main headline in the Galactic Inquirer for sure."

Anakin was still trying to process both that Shaak-Ti and Obi-Wan were having some sort of relationship, and that Obi-Wan had a pet name for her. He didn't want to know any more.

Obi-wan stepped forwards, leading the way into the council chambers, and Anakin suddenly felt very nervous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah. Obi-wan and Shaak-Ti... I have no idea whatsoever which part of my subconscious mind generated that one.


	11. The council meeting

About ten minutes after Anakin had left the chancellor's office, a holocall was placed through to an anonymous number, deep in the Coruscant undercity, from another anonymous number, somewhere in the senate district.

"Yes?" The Nikto at the end of the line asked, his voice distorted by three different filtering programs before finally reaching the ears of the hooded figure on the other end of the line.

"I have a job for you and the Morgukai." Darth Sidious announced, without preamble. "The Jedi Ahsoka Tano is starting to interfere with my plans. Keep an eye on her, and take any opportunity to see that some harm comes to her."

"The usual fee?"

"Doubled. This isn't a normal contract, although I am sure that you are up to completing it. The credits should be in your Nar Shaddaa numbered account."

The Nikto assassin turned away, calling up a small monitor, which showed green. Lots of it.

"She will not live out the week, Lord Sidious."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Obi-Wan pushed open the doors of the council chamber, before stepping past Anakin, and taking his own seat.

"Anakin Skywalker." Mace Windu stated, once Obi-Wan was seated, and the chamber doors were closed. "We have approved your appointment to the Council as the Chancellor's personal representative."

Anakin nodded, slightly surprised at the fact that they'd accepted such a blatant imposition.

"I will do my best to uphold the principles of the Jedi Order." He responded.

"Also, Anakin, it is my pleasure to tell you that your padawan, Ahsoka Tano, is to be awarded the rank of Jedi Knight, for her courage and conviction."

 _You bastard._  Anakin thought.  _You were just as ready as the rest of the council to send her before a firing squad with almost no real proof._

"Thank you, Master Windu." He replied instead. "I'm sure she'll be pleased to hear it."

"Why is she not with you?" Windu asked. "You were both summoned before us."

"She's meditating, Master Windu. She believed that she was about to be granted the rank of Jedi Knight, and was struggling to contain her emotions."

"Anakin, how many times do we all have to apologise to her?" Mace asked. He'd been forced to examine a few uncomfortable facts about his own psyche in the days after her trial. He'd actually managed to apologise for his actions, rather than blaming the Force, in the end.

"I'm not sure that the number can be expressed within the lifespan of this universe, Master Windu. She was so wounded by those allegations, and the lack of faith in her shown by the Order, that I could, ultimately, only convince her to stay as my padawan through bribery."

Mace, not to mention the rest of the council, both those physically present and not, looked at him with surprise.

"What were her terms?" He asked.

"A really large meal at the Manari, and the right to choose at any time except in during combat that she wished to leave both me and the Order behind." He didn't mention the circumstances of the offer, at the departure terminal of Coruscant Spaceport, seconds before she was going step through the immigration checkpoint.

"You got a table at the Manari?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Being the Hero with No Fear does come with a few advantages, Master. The maître-d' was willing to use his discretion to free up a table for us, although I believe that the booking had been cancelled shortly before." The steak had been excellent, although Ahsoka had somewhat overindulged on the wine, and had had to be extracted over one shoulder, giggling, before being poured into bed.

"Interesting." Obi-Wan rubbed his chin, before turning back to Anakin. "Anakin, before you take your seat, is there anything you'd like to say?"

"Am I a Master now?" He asked.

"You've served three years on the front lines of a galactic war. You've successfully trained one of the most unique padawans in the Jedi Order to Knighthood, despite the failures of the council. You are a Master, if you want the title, of course."

Both of them knew that there was a lot more to it than just that. It was what had been agreed, though.

"Take a seat, young Skywalker." Mace said, waving a hand to indicate one of the empty chairs around the perimeter of the chamber.

Anakin chose one, before taking a seat, suddenly looking around the chamber with new eyes.  _This is… actually happening. I am a Jedi Master._

It wasn't something he'd ever expected. He didn't know if he was up to it, but he had to try.

Then, the council turned to business. Ki-Adi-Mundi, one of the members not physically present, gave his report on the hunt for General Grievous.

"We have surveyed all systems in the Republic, and have found no sign of General Grievous." He reported, looking noticeably frustrated.

"Hiding in the Outer Rim, Grievous is. The outlying systems, you must sweep." Yoda responded, his voice firm.

"It may take some time . . . we do not have many ships to spare." Obi-Wan pointed out.

"We cannot take ships from the front line." Mace Windu commented.

"And yet, it would be fatal for us to allow the droid armies to regroup." Obi-Wan pointed out, seeming to be playing both sides of the argument at once, for a few moments.

"Master Kenobi, our spies contact, you must, and then wait." Yoda instructed him. Obi-Wan replied with a polite nod.

"What about the droid attack on the Wookiees?" Ki-Adi-Mundi asked.

"It is critical we send an attack group there, immediately!" Mace Windu announced.

"He's right, that is a system we cannot afford to lose. It's on the main navigation route for the southwestern quadrant."

"I know that system well. It would take us little time to drive the droids off that planet." Anakin contributed, eagerly.

"Skywalker, we have a role for you on Coruscant. We need someone keeping an eye on the Chancellor. Someone who he trusts."

"He's my friend!" Anakin yelled. "And you want me to take advantage of that to spy on him?"

"Anakin, be careful of your friend Palpatine." Obi-Wan said.

"Be careful of what?" Anakin demanded.

"He has placed you on this council. If we had not intended to seat you today anyway, you would have been imposed upon us."

"He believes that he did impose me upon you."

"Then foster that belief." Mace instructed him. "Allow him to believe himself your friend, and us your enemies."

"I'm not a spy, Masters."

"All of this is unusual, Anakin, and it's making me feel uneasy. You're probably aware that relations between the Council and the Chancellor are stressed."

"He said as much to me."

"Then having a conduit reporting to both sides is a useful way of reducing tensions. Report the truth to him, and to us. Just keep from him that you are reporting on him as well as to him. I do not know how he would react." Obi-Wan said, living up to his nickname as "The Negotiator."

Anakin settled, but he looked uneasy, nonetheless.

"Master Kenobi, leading the force to seek General Grievous, will be. " Yoda stated, cutting across the impending argument over who got to do some fighting. Go to Kashyyyk, I will. Good relations with the Wookiees, I have."

It is settled then. Yoda will take a battalion of clones to reinforce the Wookiees on Kashyyyk. May the Force be with us all." Mace confirmed, before turning to the rest of the chamber. "Does anyone else have anything to add, or should we move on to the next phase of this meeting?"

Obi-wan spoke up almost immediately. "There was something you wanted to say to us about Padawan Tano, wasn't there, Anakin?" he asked.

"There is..., Master." Anakin replied, struggling, then failing to use the man's first name. "During our last deployment, we became intoxicated, after a near miss."

"I have seen the report you submitted to us on the events on Teiron." Mace growled. "What happened?"

"While we were intoxicated…" Anakin broke off, feeling his face burning. "We slept together, while we were drunk. We have not shared a bed since." In his mind, Anakin was referring to additional intercourse, rather than literally sharing a bed at night. He was also thankful that he wasn't being brought to task for throttling a tabloid journalist.

"Tell us this before you did not. Hmmmmmm." Yoda remarked. "Foolish, all young Jedi are."

"I… feel embarrassed that it happened, Masters." Anakin said. "I should have been in more control." That was truthful, at least. He didn't regret it, but the fact that he'd ended up in bed with her was more than slightly embarrassing.

"We have all made mistakes, Anakin." Obi-wan said. "But I know that there is more to this. My feelings tell me as much. And I think that we, as your peers, deserve to know the rest."

 _Oh, Sithspit._  "Masters, I will be returning my saber to you, then." He said, resignedly, standing up, and moving into the centre of the circle of chairs again. "Since that night… I've come to realise how much I care for Ahsoka. I love her. And she feels the same way about me."

"Anakin!" Mace burst out. "Do you honestly think that you are the first Jedi in history that has come before the council with a similar story?"

Anakin just looked at him, almost speechless.

"We've had Jedi declare their love in front of us almost more times than I can count, in the last three years. Sometimes, there has even been an additional reason on the way." Obi-wan signalled something, at a location Anakin knew to conceal a holocam. Shortly afterwards, he discovered that a fifty-seven kilogram Togruta, moving at around seven metres per second, could develop considerable kinetic energy, particularly when arriving airborne.

He just caught her, spinning her around, and forgot about everything except her scent and the taste of her lips on his.

"Anakin." Mace said, far more firmly. "If you had attempted to conceal this from us…"

"I understand, Master Windu." He replied.

"There is a difference between passion and love. This is something deeper than emotion." Anakin suddenly realised that this had been the final test.

"Ahsoka." Yoda said. "Time, it is."

Anakin took a step back, joining the rest of the Masters of the council, as they ignited their lightsabers, holding them vertically.

"We are all Jedi. The Force speaks through us. Through our actions, the Force proclaims itself and what is real. Today we are here to acknowledge what the Force has proclaimed." Yoda announced. "Kneel, Padawan Ahsoka Tano."

Ahsoka dropped to her knees almost faster than gravity could have pulled her there.

"By the right of the Council, by the will of the Force, I dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic." Yoda announced, formally almost tapping her on each shoulder, before using his lightsaber to sever her braid of silka beads. It rattled to the floor behind her. "Arise, Ahsoka Tano, Jedi Knight of the Republic."

Ahsoka stood, before turning on her heel, following the ritual, and exiting the chamber.

"Anakin." Obi-wan said, cheerfully. "Go."

"As you insist, Master." Anakin replied, following the highly exuberant Force presence of his now former Padawan.


	12. Anakin and Ahsoka spend some special time together, followed by a meal with friends

Anakin didn't catch up with Ahsoka until she had reached the small suite of rooms they'd shared whenever they were at the Temple, rather than somewhere in the field, where they could end up sleeping anywhere from a palace to a thick bush, in just about any weather imaginable.

It was where the keepsakes lived, the little mementos, the trophies. Anakin's eyes briefly rested on a pair of binders, held together with a short cable tie, the original fastening point severed by a lightsaber strike. Next to them, he spotted a collar, with a couple of links of chain hanging from it. It was wrapped with a single piece of black fabric.

Ahsoka was in her quarters.

Knocking, he waited for a moment, before stepping through the door. His former padawan was holding a case, and was in the act of placing it on the bed when the door slid open.

She looked a bit guilty, when he saw it.

"Moving out already?" He asked.

"These are padawan quarters, Master." She replied.

"Ahsoka..." he said, noticing her stepping towards her wardrobe.

She put the case back on the bed, with a slight grin.

"Well, Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker," she said. "I'm not your padawan anymore."

"I'm aware of that." He commented. "You're a Jedi Knight."

Ahsoka cocked her head slightly, trying to figure out what he meant.

"Well, I no longer have some of the duties of care I used to towards you." He pointed out. "I also no longer have the duty not to have any form of relationship with you other than as a mentor and teacher."

"Master?" Ahsoka asked, her voice nearly tailing off softly.

He just opened his arms.

She stepped in between them, eyes shining.

"There's nothing between us now, Snips. Nothing at all."

Then he kissed her, full on the lips, and she could feel his intentions through the Force.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she replied, pressing close to him, reaching out with the Force to the door panel, and locking the door. She also hit the sonic dampers. They'd know if a bomb went off in the corridor, but no one would hear anything less than that.

"I love you." He whispered, breaking the kiss, and holding her very close.

"I know." She whispered back, feeling his strong arms under her hips.

Then one of those hands rose behind her, inside two layers of Jedi robes, and unlatched the tiny clip he found just below her shoulder blades.

"You're sure?" He asked.

"I'm sure." She replied. "I don't want to forget this."

Anakin didn't waste much time after that. Within a minute, their robes were on the floor, along with what little had been underneath them.

Anakin just held Ahsoka, drinking in the sight of her, seeing the gleam in her eyes as she wrapped herself around him, and then they were on the bed, learning all of the little things about each other that would ensure success.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Obi-wan knocked on another door a few minutes later.

He felt a sense of welcome a few moments later, and pushed open the door, closing it carefully behind him, carrying the silver tray, complete with covered serving dish, in one hand.

"What is it?" Shaak-Ti asked, curiously, scenting well-cooked protein in the air.

"Something we can share." Her lover replied, dabbing a kiss onto her cheek, as she moved to embrace him, quite differently to the way Ahsoka had wrapped herself around Anakin. "An alderaanian risotto, with braised steak."

"A risotto?" She asked, curiously, returning the more courtly kiss.

"Sometimes Anakin's old girlfriend came up with. The rice is in fact meat protein, flavoured with the ester that flavours rice, and formed into grains of rice."

"Clever." Shaak-Ti remarked, as she looked out the place settings. "It won't be a problem for you?"

"I can't eat too much of it, or I'll lose my figure." He said. "Still, I'm sure that in such good company, I can work up a bit of an appetite quickly enough."

Her laugh lit up the room, as Obi-wan lit a candle on the table, and cracked open a small bottle of wine, pouring a generous measure into the two glasses on the table.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin could feel the mischief approaching him as he showered very distinctly.

"Snips..." He said. "We've got a table booked at Laido's in an hour. We don't have time."

Ahsoka seemed somewhat disappointed. "You're sure?" She asked, her voice slightly hoarse.

"I'm sure. Tonight, though, we'll have all the time in the world."  **(1)**

He felt the grin on her face as he worked the shampoo deeper into his scalp, clearing the last of the mixture of human and togruta musks, before rinsing carefully, washing the foam and particles out of his hair.

As he stepped out, he gently pecked the nude togruta on left montral, wrapping a towel around his waist. "Get in the shower, you."

Ahsoka grinned as she clambered into the shower cubicle, feeling a finger briefly run down her spine, sending a storm of messages through her body, before the mechanical screen swung into place, and the water began cascading over her montrals.

Carefully, Anakin selected his best robes, those he'd been given for his own graduation as a Jedi Knight, even as brief and wartime as the ceremony had been. They were far more carefully woven than the traditional robes, softer, and smoother. They reduced distractions, and had made meditation less challenging.

A small package at the back of his wardrobe had been for Ahsoka.

Smiling, he looked it out, laying the contents on her bed.

A few minutes later, she stepped out of the shower, and slowly walked through the small space that separated her from the entryway into her room with her hips swaying exaggeratedly and the towel fastened just below her armpits. He knew she was doing it to tease him, and her force-presence danced with amusement at the ease with which she could have such an effect on her Master.

There was no undignified squeal when she found the new robes Anakin had selected for her, all those months before. He just felt a bolt of glee in her presence, quite distinct from some of the other sensations he'd been picking up from her a bit more recently.

Then she came back through, the robes neatly sitting on her body. They were the same style as Anakin's, made from tan wool, with a darker outer robe. The robe had been customized specifically, with an oversized hood possibly five times the volume of her head. Right now, it looked rather silly, engulfing her head and montrals several times over, forcing her to store the majority of the fabric behind the tips of her montrals, with only enough hanging over to keep the garment in place without the Force being involved.

Anakin grinned, before she crossed the room, and decided to do some cuddling.

He reciprocated, before she broke off, having glimpsed the wall mounted chrono, and heading for the hangar. He followed close behind, pausing just long enough to collect his speeder keys and lock the door.

It was a fairly uneventful journey, even through Coruscanti traffic. Anakin touched down the speeder outside the restaurant about ten minutes before their reservation, and just after another speeder with Jedi Temple holoplates.

Obi-wan nodded to his former padawan as he assisted Shaak-Ti out of the speeder, in a fashion that set Anakin to mind of a knight helping his lady down from her palfrey in an holodrama. Above them, a third speeder arrived, carrying Padmé, Typho, and Bail Organa. Greetings were quickly exchanged, before they found themselves being ushered inside by several very firm waitstaff, who Anakin considered, briefly, recruiting, and employing as military cat herders, in charge on ensuring that logistics ran smoothly.

None of them, even Typho, noticed the holoshill in a small speeder hovering about two hundred yards away with a telephoto lens.

They were shown to a booth, with seven settings, although one vanished quite quickly with the exchange of a pair of glances between Typho and one of the waiters, before he took up an unobtrusive position with line of sight to both doors and kitchen without needing to turn his head, however briefly.

Ahsoka slid into the semi-circular arrangement first, sitting comfortably on the expensively upholstered seats, before Anakin slid in beside her. Shaak-Ti and Obi-wan took the other side of the booth, while Bail and Padmé sat in the armchairs that had been provided for diners who wanted in individual chair.

"So." Padmé said to Ahsoka, once all the usual pleasantries had been exchanged. "How is he?"

"I don't have any real basis for comparison, Senator." Ahsoka replied, tasting the precise meaning of the question, and the smiles it brought to the faces of Obi-wan and Shaak-Ti. "But he's very attentive."

Anakin was busy trying not to notice the not-quite adolescent contact between his former Master and Shaak-Ti, but still found the time to make a brief handcuff gesture to Padmé, who grinned back without attempting to conceal her rosy blush.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The holonet site the pictures of the small party arriving outside Laido's were loaded onto was the rough equivalent of a grimy undercity tapcaf, compared to the Michelin-starred towering edifice that was a broadcaster such as HNN or GNBC. It was funded largely through adverts for some of the more extreme fetishes to be found in the galaxy, largely viewed by those who had restraining orders, or who would have been served one in a heartbeat, had they ever been able to exit their bedrooms. Unfortunately, it was also on another network.

"We have a hit for their location."

"Excellent. Saddle up. We'll be very major news in the near future."

The six man Nikto hit squad clambered into their beige speedervan, before setting off for Laido's restaurant.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Padmé, unsurprisingly, as far as Anakin was concerned, contented herself with a large glass of kavje juice, a relatively tart, glistening purple drink that might well have put the uninitiated in mind of a cleaning fluid. He had ordered a carafe of the house red, which turned out to be an excellent vintage, if not a classic, but very drinkable.

Ahsoka ordered herself a rare steak, with bacon chips and garlic sauce. Anakin went for a stew, containing gently stewed gornt, and large amounts of vegetable matter, presented in such a way that it was identifiable without anything more complicated than visual scanning being required. Obi-wan chose a layered pie, thick puff-pastry surrounding a mass of fried chicken in masala sauce. Shaak-Ti, somewhat surprisingly, went for a meat curry. Padmé had clearly gone through the three stages of virtuous eating, giving up, following her cravings, and eating normally, choosing a duck dish presented in orange sauce.

It wasn't long before the conversation turned to more important matters.

"Have you been following the Thugball, Master?" Anakin asked.

"There's been a few good matches lately." Obi-wan replied. "Nothing like the last day of the six sectors, but some solid matches."

"Did they let the Jedi into the Coruscant league, in the end?"

"No. It was decided that a kicker who could hit the centre of the posts in a hurricane from behind his own try-line would be an unfair advantage. Never mind that they'd have had to suspend most of the rest of the laws if they didn't want to be awarding a penalty every time the opposing team passed the ball."

"No one mentioned Ysalamiri?" Anakin asked.

"Those are the last thing we want on Coruscant. It doesn't matter how hard they are to steal, someone would manage, and then we'd find it near damned impossible to catch them, or to get hold of them."

"There would be the option of having a Jedi referee."

"They're twitchy enough about a Coruscanti referee officiating in any match featuring the core sector team."

"We are trained to be impartial."

Obi-wan coughed slightly. "Trained. Not forced."

"You may have a point, Master."

Once they'd finished the mains, it was on to dessert. Padmé selected a knickerbocker glory. Ahsoka went for a selection of premium dried meats. Obi-wan chose a liquor coffee, as did Shaak-Ti. Anakin, after much deliberation, chose a slice of cheesecake.

Once the dessert course had been disposed of, Ahsoka was feeling a little restless, and a touch warm.

"Master." She said, gently pecking Anakin on the ear. "I'm just going for some fresh air."

"See you in a couple of minutes." He replied, as she clambered out of the booth.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The air in the landing area outside the restaurant was a few degrees cooler than it had been when Ahsoka stepped outside, causing her to tunnel deeper into her robes. Had she been a bit older, and not raised as cleanly, she'd have taken the opportunity to extract a packet of bac-sticks from her pocket, and light one, before smoking it. Instead, she made do with one of her special stock of jerky sticks, which, although he wasn't entirely unsuspecting, Anakin had no idea about them being laced with a mild euphoric compound.

Twenty seconds after she started sucking one of them, it began to kick in.

Then her danger sense went wild as well, and she threw herself forwards, as a volley of fire from a silenced automatic slugthrower tore through the air where she'd perhaps been an instant before.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin felt her sudden alarm at almost the same instant Shaak-Ti and Obi-wan did. The three Jedi Masters moved almost at once, signalling Typho to remain with the senators, drawing their lightsabers before they were out of the door.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Despite her agility, and precognitive abilities, and indeed her three years of combat experience, Ahsoka was still hit by a burst of gunfire before she could entirely get her bearings, sending a wave of agony ripping through the Force as the rounds ripped a hole in her torso, penetrating a lung, perforating her intestines, and shredding a kidney for good measure.

She just slumped to the ground, lying, face upwards, with her blue eyes wide open, looking into the face of a Nikto, still holding an automatic weapon.

"Darth Sidious sends his regards." He said, raising his weapon, aiming it between her eyes. She felt the slightly warm metal of the gun barrel kiss the bridge of her nose, and watched the trigger sliding slowly backwards, almost in slow motion. Then darkness rolled across her eyes, and she went limp. The last thing she saw before it all black went was a cyan flash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1): A very deliberate reference/foreshadowing


	13. Emergency medicine

Anakin came out of the restaurant door to see what was practically the worst thing he could have imagined.

Ahsoka, laid out on the floor. Blood pooling beneath her, flowing onto the duracrete. A blaster held to her head.

Anakin just reacted without thought.

 _Weapon: slugthrower, rather than a blaster. Aim for trigger_.

He made what was probably the most desperate underarm cast of his life, sending the sky blue blade soaring through the air. If he missed by a few centimetres, the blade would pass through the bullet casing, the intense heat all but certain to trigger the propellant charge.

It struck his target perfectly, vaporizing the trigger and sections of the hand holding it, before carving through the body of the gunman, sending the torso to the floor, closely followed by the legs, once they lost all control input and fell over.

Then he noticed the other five assassins, in a firing line.

There was no question what was going to happen next.

A force-wave ripped across the platform, carrying all of the loose debris with it, everything from dust particles to several small credit chits, propelled by a scream of rage and devastation. Four of the five attackers went with it, hurled over the edge of the platform, or into a wall. Those who struck the wall were rendered into a putty, every bone in their body shattered in an instant by the massive forces exerted on them.

The fifth raised his weapon, as Anakin crossed the distance, a kinetic shield of Force energy held in front of him, robbing the slugs of the their energy. The shield absorbed seventy rounds, before the magazine ran dry.

Anakin's lightsaber thrummed once, severing the head of the last surviving attacker with a scream of anger.

Then he turned to the horribly still and agonizingly small body laid on the platform behind him.

"SNIPS!" He yelled.

Shaak-Ti dropped to her knees beside the fallen padawan, frantically probing the small body.

"She isn't breathing. I can't find a pulse." Frantically, the Jedi master triaged the injuries with the Force.  _She's been hit in one kidney. There's a hole in her left lung, perhaps three inches from her heart, along with a damaged rib. Her large intestine is perforated. Lots of shrapnel as well._  "Anakin!" She called, making a note that the stomach injury was the least pressing.

The younger Jedi's boyfriend hurried over. "I need you to do exactly what I say." She told him, pinching a particular point with the Force. "Take over that hold. It'll stop her bleeding out." Nervously, Anakin pinched off the artery, reducing the growth rate of the puddle of blood underneath Ahsoka by a visible amount.

Then, Shaak-Ti turned her attention to the chest wound.

 _Shavit. There's no other option to stop the bleeding_.

"Anakin, keep the pressure on that artery." She told him, drawing her lightsaber from her belt.

The she pressed it against the exit wound, muttered a brief prayer to the Huntress, and hit the activation switch.

Anakin started at the sound, but he kept the pressure on the artery regardless. "Master?" He demanded.

"It was the only way to stop the bleeding, Anakin." She replied. "Kenobi!"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Obi-wan had hung back slightly once the emergency was mostly contained, hauling his comlink out of the small pocket it lived in, and holding down the emergency frequency.

"Emergency, Emergency, Emergency. This is Obi-wan Kenobi. I am at Laido's restaurant. We need a red level medical response immediately. Jedi Tano has been shot, at least twice."

"Kenobi, this is Emergency control. Stay on the line, we are inbound."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Inside the restaurant, Padmé heard the sudden roar from outside.

"Gregor, move, now." He ordered her bodyguard, drawing the sidearm she'd carried for more than a decade. Bail dipped into his own pocket, producing what looked like a DL-44 from his tunic.

It wasn't a military grade starburst. Padmé's handmaiden training was five years out of date. Bail had never received any military training, but was a competent shooter and carried a sidearm with more than enough power to cause considerable discomfort to a juvenile rancor. Any groups of assassins would still have ended up in a lot of trouble.

Instead, they saw two Jedi crouched over the tiny form of Ahsoka, her face wan, and a pool of blood spreading beneath her.

Obi-wan glanced around, before throwing his comlink to Bail. "Keep talking to them." He instructed his friend, before hurrying over to Ahsoka.

Shaak-Ti began giving orders again. "Senator Amidala, get any sort of cup from inside the restaurant. Kenobi, remember the oxygen bottle drill?"

He nodded at her.

"Use it." Then she reached out with the Force, and wrapped a grip around Ahsoka's heart. She started playing a track in her head.

 _Ai, Ai, Ai, Ai, staying alive, staying alive, Ai Ai Ai Ai, staying al-iive_. She remembered, squeezing in time to the beat. "Kenobi, every time you have filled that cup, put it to her face and make her breathe." Padmé had just dropped a pint glass into his hand, and was clambering out of her coat, before draping it over Ahsoka.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

At the temple, the healers had just finished a round of cards when their scanner lit off. "Emergency, Emergency, Emergency. This is Obi-wan Kenobi. I am at Laido's restaurant. We need a red level emergency response immediately. Jedi Tano has been shot at least twice.

They didn't listen to any of the other communications. They were already halfway down the grav tube, while the pilot cold started his speeder, hands flying over the controls as he brought the repulsorlift up well inside the manufacturer's minimum time.

Even with a pilot who could match Anakin Skywalker at the controls, and a maximum atmospheric speed of Mach six, the speeder couldn't be there instantly. It would take them five agonizing minutes, listening to the updates on the ground, and the frantic attempts to keep the small Jedi alive.

Incredibly, they realized, the Jedi on the ground were managing to stabilise her. The commentary had been taken over by a senator, now. Somehow, they'd improvised an oxygen cylinder, and stopped most of the bleeding.

The nose of the airspeeder was glowing cherry-red when it touched down, and the equivalent of a full emergency team sprinted out. Two of them were carrying containers of synthesized blood, built from her DNA records at the Temple. Another was carrying a cardiac stimulator in on hand, and a full cylinder of oxygen, with a breath mask, in the other.

Behind them, the Coruscant alpha team touched down in their own speeder, sprinting out with all of the other essentials for keeping her alive during the transfer to the Temple medical centre.

Shaak-Ti was briefing the leading trauma specialist.

"She's not been breathing for the last six minutes, and there is no pulse." As she spoke, her hand continued to clench and unclench, driving the remaining blood around Ahsoka's body. "Jedi Skywalker is keeping her left renal artery closed, and Master Kenobi is breathing for her."

With a smile, one of the healers took over the artery from Anakin, keeping the pressure in place. The newest master in the order staggered away, into Padmé's arms, which in that moment, were as welcoming as they had ever been, as she gently kissed him on the cheek. Another paramedic laid an oxygen mask over Ahsoka's mouth and nose, and took over breathing for her with a bag valve mask, still preferred by emergency teams millennia after it was first invented, because of how few ways it could go wrong.

Another Jedi inserted a catheter into her right wrist, before connecting the first bags of blood and saline solution to a metal trolley.

Ahsoka had now been clinically dead for nine minutes.

Two minutes later, the cardiac stimulator succeeded, and her heart began to beat on its own again. Her breathing restarted after another two frantic minutes of resuscitation, although she was still barely able to draw enough breath to survive.

They began a scoop and scoot extraction as soon as she was able to breathe unaided again.

At the Temple medical centre, a full 'Red Phone' trauma team was mobilizing. Master Stass Allie, one of the senior healers, was leading them. A padawan hauled more than a dozen additional bags of synthetic blood down the corridor.

Then the doors crashed open, a hovergurney entering at Jedi running speed, before being deposited in the booth.

The senior Jedi paramedic began reading off a list, listing the injuries in order of severity. "Gunshot injury to left kidney and large intestine. Left Renal artery has been severed. Further gunshot wound to the chest, passing through left lung and striking the third rib, approximately three inches from the heart. Subsequent lightsaber wound along same axis to stop bleeding."

Then the medical team went to work. This was a fight they weren't prepared to lose.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Perhaps half an hour later, Stass Allie exited the trauma centre. Anakin, with Padmé on one side and Obi-Wan on the other, was sitting on a row of chairs, fist clenching and unclenching. Shaak-Ti was pacing opposite, lekku twitching.

"Master Skywalker?" She asked. "We've got some news for you."

Anakin's head jerked upwards, his eyes suddenly almost terrifyingly intense.

"She's still alive. We've got her in a bacta tank now. Two of the senior healers are with her."

She was astonished to see the Hero with No Fear suddenly slump backwards, his eyes filling with tears.

"Thank the Force." He whispered. "I thought I'd lost her again."

"It was very close. If you hadn't stopped the bleeding when you did, there's almost no chance that she'd be breathing right now."

"Master Shaak-Ti saved her life." He replied. "We all did what she told us."

The Togruta master looked around, startled. "I did what I could." She replied. "It was a team effort. Without all of us working together, there is no way I could have kept her alive."

Anakin just slumped back into his chair.

"Master Skywalker, one of the fringe benefits of being a healer is that, inside this medical centre, my word is law. As such, I am ordering you to remove yourself from the premises until eleven hundred hours tomorrow."

Padmé and Obi-Wan between them hauled him to his feet, before manhandling him down the corridor.

"I'll take him back to mine, if you want." Padmé offered.

Obi-Wan just nodded. "It'll do him good not to be in a place where everything reminds him of Ahsoka. Just for tonight, of course."

Gently, Anakin was loaded into Padmé's speeder, and, with Typho driving, they headed back to her apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not a paramedic, or any sort of medic. I apologise for any inconsistency due to a lack of technical knowledge.
> 
> It would also appear that Shaak-Ti has encountered a certain Vinnie Jones advert on hands only CPR


	14. The Morning

The next morning, when Padmé went to check on her former boyfriend, she found that the guest bed she'd inserted the almost completely passive Anakin into was empty.

Not wanting to alarm Obi-Wan with an immediate holocall, she instead padded through into the kitchen, in case he was already awake.

She spotted him slumped over the counter, with a half-empty bottle of her whiskey next to him.

"Is it helping?" she asked, keeping the acidic response she wanted to make out of her voice.

"Uh… little." He replied.

"It's ten-o-clock Coruscant time." Padmé pointed out. "And that means that Ahsoka will be... ready for visitors in about an hour."

Anakin dragged himself to his feet at that.

"Get in the shower." Padmé ordered him, "I'll have your caf waiting,"

Anakin just staggered through to the shower.

 _Stars. He's suffering._  She supposed, really, that she shouldn't be too surprised at his reaction. Anakin had never been something to do anything by halves, particularly when it involved sports or interests. If she'd read Ahsoka's body-language correctly the previous evening, they'd probably been in bed together a hour before they arrived at the restaurant, and just over two hours before she was shot.

There was absolutely no way she was letting him drive the four of them to the Temple. Not with all the Force-Cleansing abilities in the world, if he had half a bottle of whyren's reserve inside him.

To her relief, he didn't fall over in the shower. Instead, he stumbled out, dressed in what appeared to be the set of clean robes that had ended up in her wardrobe permanently. His graduation robes looked like something out of a horror flick. So, admittedly, did her coat. Both had been dumped into the laundry machine the previous night.

To her surprise, he sounded coherent in the airspeeder.

"Padmé..." He began, hesitantly. "How much did seeing me with Ahsoka hurt you?"

_He's not... he's not thinking I ordered that... for her?_

"Anakin." She replied, injecting enough arctic chill into her voice to make a Wampa feel nicely at home. "We've been over for six months. The fact that I'm, to use the colloquialism, 'knocked up,' doesn't matter one bit to me. I'm glad you're the father, compared to a couple of the boy-toys I've had since then."

"Ah." He sounded more than slightly abashed.

"Anakin, seeing you with Ahsoka makes me feel that there is some light at the end of the tunnel. We've all seen the reports on the holonet about Jedi being arrested down in the Red Light district or in some of the luxury hotels in the senate district. A fair chunk of the galaxy believes that Jedi don't marry because they don't want to, not because they are banned from doing so."

"People really believe that."

"You'd be surprised." Padmé replied.

"I probably would be." Anakin commented.

To his surprise, she didn't go directly to the Temple. Instead, she dropped the airspeeder down in a small market, and clambered out, taking Anakin with her.

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"We're picking up something I ordered earlier." Padmé replied, as they turned into a florists, signed as 'the widest range of exotic flowering plants on Coruscant.'

Once inside, Padmé showed her ID to the manager. The ithorian nodded at her, before stepping into the backroom and returning with a massive bouquet Anakin realised, judging from the colouration, was almost certainly a selection of shillian flowering plants.

It was placed in his arms by the senator, before she led the way back through the marketplace, selecting from what appeared to be a pet supply store what looked suspiciously like the flavoured rawhide biscuits Ahsoka had a taste for.

"You're not going to give her those?" He asked.

"They're up to the standards expected from humanoid-consumable food." She replied. "She also seems to like them."

Anakin didn't have a reply to that, and simply followed Padmé back to the speeder, helping to stow everything inside, before clambering into his seat and buckling up as she lifted off.

It wasn't very long before the speeder dropped into the parking area at the Temple. Glancing around, Anakin noticed his speeder, parked up in one of the bays assigned to members of the High Council.

"Obi-Wan had one of the garage attendants recover it early this morning." Padmé explained. "He felt that you'd prefer to be able to drive yourself to your meeting with the chancellor at four."

Anakin rubbed his eyes slightly, before setting off for the medbay.

The walk was relatively short. Someone, when planning the Temple's layout, had ensured that the two bays were very close together. There was also a direct turbolift to the trauma room, although that wasn't Anakin's destination.

Outside the intensive care unit, Stass Allie was waiting with her datapad.

"Master Skywalker, Senator Amidala." She said, in greeting, as the pair walked up to her.

"Master Allie." Anakin replied with a nod. "How is she?"

"The best answer that I can give you is a head-to-toe." She told him.

Anakin winced slightly, before nodding, gesturing for her to go ahead.

"She has what appears to be a repeated concussion injury, and further soft-tissue damage consistent with whiplash. Those injuries are about three days old, based on her medical records and healing rates. Further down, she has what appears to be a cracked collarbone, presumably from her rather awkward landing after being shot. The slug which narrowly missed her heart struck the base of her third rib on its way out through her back, sending a variety of fragments into the surrounding soft tissue. Most of them have caused minor injuries, although one came closer to her aorta than we would have liked. Unfortunately, one of the fragments, travelling at quite an acute angle, has penetrated the soft tissue protecting her spinal column, although we aren't entirely sure if it's a bullet fragment or not."

"What effect is this likely to have?" Anakin asked, looking very nervous.

"Judging by the nerves struck, she is unlikely to walk again without assistance, which will almost certainly be required for the rest of her life."

Anakin just looked at the healer for a few moments, calling to mind the grace of Ahsoka's stride, and her combat movement, even while impaired.

"How much of an effect can treatment have on her injuries?" He asked.

"Unfortunately, not as much as we'd like. She's not allergic to bacta, but her neural tissue isn't responding to the treatment as we expected it to. I'm sorry, Master Skywalker."

Fortunately, there was a chair nearby. Anakin collapsed into it, feeling his world implode again. He'd seen the Force, and galactic-level medicine treat almost any medical condition or injury. To learn that Ahsoka would, in all likelihood, only ever be able to walk with a stick was horrifying.

"Is there anything that the Force can do for her?" He asked.

"I'm afraid, Master Skywalker, that there isn't. We've been able to do some DNA testing of her spinal tissue. It looks like her myelin sheath grows far faster than normal."

"Does she know?" Anakin asked.

"Master Skywalker... we haven't been able to tell her."

"Why?" Anakin demanded.

"She hasn't woken up. Even with the Force... we don't know when or if she will wake up. She was clinically dead for thirteen minutes. Even with all of our scans, we don't know what damage her brain has sustained."

Anakin just looked at her, trying to process the fact that his former padawan was in a coma, possibly brain-damaged, and might never wake up.

"Is there anything I can do?" He asked, finally.

"We don't ever know if people can hear us when they are in a coma. What we do know is that the stimulus from a conversation has been known to sometimes cause people to spontaneously recover from a coma."

"Can I see her?" He asked.

Stass Allie just pushed open the door. "Go ahead."

Just looking at Ahsoka, Anakin almost managed to convince himself she was just sleeping. Her chest was rising and falling steadily, rhythmically. It didn't detract from the fact that although she was breathing, she was clearly ill. There was a wide dressing on her chest, all-too-close to her heart, and another two lower down, one covering the far smaller hole that had come within fifteen seconds of killing her from blood loss, and another covering the hole in her stomach that was largely repaired already, from a combination of old-fashioned surgical procedures and topical bacta treatment.

"Snips, I don't know if you can hear me, but I love you so much." Anakin told her, listening to the melodic rhythm of the monitoring equipment as it reported her vital signs. "The healers don't know if you're ever going to wake up. I know that you can, any time you want to, and try hard enough. I'm going to be here for you, whatever it takes." He gently reached out, and took a firm hold on her hand, before squeezing it gently. "I know that the twins will want to meet you, and to know you." He said, tears in his eyes. "I want to do all of those things we talked about. I want to be with you as long as you want to be with me." Anakin knew it was a trick of the light, but he always believed he saw her mouth twitch slightly, before going slack again.

"Padmé?" He called, hesitantly. The senator hurried into the room, carrying the brightly coloured bouquet, and placing it in a vase thoughtfully provided by the medcenter.

Next to it, she placed the various treats, in a box that rather belied that only a akk-dog or a togruta would want to eat them.

Anakin just sat there, holding Ahsoka's hand, with tears rolling down his face, not knowing when the nightmare was, if ever, going to end.

Finally, though, it was time to face the Council, then the Supreme Chancellor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahsoka's injuries were generated using a roll table. Fortunately, I took the precaution of giving myself a reroll in the event of a critical hit. As a result, Ahsoka will not be in a hoverchair for the rest of her life, having suffered the near total severing of her spinal cord.


	15. A second meeting with the Council and the Chancellor

He didn't want to leave her side. That, however, was something he could not avoid, ultimately, when three High Council members were suggesting he do so.

Obi-wan, Shaak-Ti and Mace Windu were all in the room with him. Ultimately, he felt he had little choice, even when they were just watching.

"Anakin." Master Shaak-Ti said. "I'll keep an eye on her, and keep her safe for you."

Obi-wan rested a hand on one of his arms. "Anakin, you can't do anything for her by sitting here and stewing." He told Anakin. "She's in the safest place in the galaxy at the moment." To his former padawan's surprise, Obi-wan pulled a small package out of his vest. "Some of her favourite jerky."

"Master, if that's the Jekoai spiced stuff, I keep taking it off of her."

"Why?" Obi-wan asked. "She seems to enjoy it."

"You always took any buzzweed I got hold of off of me, when I was her age."

"Yes." Obi-wan replied. "I did. Something to do with the side effects and legality of it."

"It's the rough shillian equivalent."

"Oh." He looked at Shaak-Ti with a raised eyebrow.

"It's harmless." She replied.

"So's buzzweed." Anakin muttered.

Obi-wan gave him the "you are a fully-fledged Jedi Master, and you are acting like a teenager' look.

Anakin got the message and stalked out of the room, followed closely be Obi-Wan and Mace Windu. As the door closed, he watched Shaak-Ti dropping into the high-backed chair next to the bed and pulling a book-reader out from inside her robes. Just as the door closed, he saw her stroking the younger togruta's forehead in a gesture of benediction.

Yoda was waiting in the Council Chamber.

"Master Skywalker. Good to see you, it is." Yoda said.

"Master Yoda." Anakin replied, bowing his head.

"To Ahsoka last night, what happened? Yoda asked.

"She was shot, Master. One of the bullets narrowly missed her spine."

"Fortunate, she is fortunate. Awake yet is she?"

"She is in a coma, Master. The medics cannot tell if or when she will awaken."

"Troubling, this is. The attackers, who were they?"

"They were Nikto, Master."

"Your force-powers could they resist?"

"No, Master."

"Strange, it is, that resist the force Morgukai could not."

"Morgukai?" Anakin asked.

"To hunting and killing Jedi, an order dedicated, they were." Yoda explained. "Eradicated many times, we thought them to have been."

"Like the Sith."

"Indeed. Like the Sith, they are. Yeesssssss."

"You think…"

"That ordered by the Sith this attack was? That I do, Young Skywalker. Easily erode your focus, it has. The thing you love most, threaten, it does."

"Why did you call me here?" Anakin asked.

"A new assignment, you have been given. Away from Coruscant, take you, it will." Yoda said. "Go with Master Kenobi, you must. After your… padawan, look, Master Shaak-Ti will."

"What about the Chancellor?" Anakin asked.

"Inform him, you will. Of utmost importance, your mission is. Stress that, you must."

"As you say, Master." Anakin responded, with a bow of his head.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 _This…_  Palpatine glared at the holonews bulletin.  _She should be dead. Even the Jedi say she should have died._

"…Reports from the Jedi Temple suggest that Ahsoka Tano, who is believed to have been recently promoted to Jedi Knight, is in a serious but stable condition. Claims that she is in a coma, medically induced or natural, have received no response. The Jedi Order has not confirmed any details, only that they are investigating the cause of the attack and the identity of its perpetrators."

 _It should be sufficient. Even if there is no lure from unborn children, they are in love. He will be vulnerable, easy to manipulate…_ The door slid open, and he spun round, facing his chagrian major-domo

"Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker to see you, Chancellor." The man announced.

"Thank you." Palpatine replied. "Send him in."

Anakin was slightly unsteady on his feet as he stepped into the office.  _He's slightly drunk. Not much sleep either. That will make things easier._

"Anakin." He greeted his future apprentice. "I'm so shocked to hear about Ahsoka."

The Jedi barely reacted.

"Such a shock. How is she doing?"

"We don't know. She's in a coma." Anakin said.

"How serious is her condition?"

"The healers don't know." He replied, sinking into a chair. "They say she could be brain-damaged. That she will never be able to walk again… she's only seventeen…" Anakin broke off.

_It is time. First, twist his distrust of the Order and the Council. Then, target his weakness._

"Anakin." He said. "You know I am not able to rely upon the Jedi Council. If they haven't included you in their plot, they soon will."

"I'm not sure I understand." Anakin responded, suddenly very cautious, as the scene of him holding a lightsaber to the chancellor's neck suddenly swung into vivid focus.

"You must sense what I have come to suspect. The Jedi Council want control of the Republic. They're planning to betray me."

"I don't think…" Anakin began, before the chancellor cut him off.

"Anakin." The man said, before pausing for a moment. "Search your feelings. You know, don't you."

Anakin suddenly felt unsure. Did he really trust the council… after what they tried to do to Ahsoka, even though they'd since promoted her to Knighthood?

"I know they don't trust you." He replied.

"Or the Senate." The chancellor commented, making a small noise of acknowledgment. "Or the Republic. Or Democracy, for that matter."

"I have to admit," Anakin responded, keeping his voice even as he began to suspect something was very wrong. "My trust in them has been shaken. Thinking about what they tried to do to Ahsoka… they would have seen her face a firing squad without showing any mercy or compassion, despite their more recent gestures."

"They asked you do something that made you feel dishonest, didn't they?" He asked. Anakin remembered the conversation, a less than a day before, asking him to pass information about the chancellor to the council. "They asked you to spy on me, didn't they?"

"I don't know what to say." He replied, truthfully.

"Remember back to your early teachings." Palpatine said, suddenly changing the subject. "All who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi."

"The Jedi use their power for good." Anakin retorted.

"Good is a point of view, Anakin. The Sith and the Jedi are similar in almost every way... including their quest for greater power."

"The Sith rely on their passion for their strength; they think inwards, only about themselves."

"And the Jedi don't?"

"The Jedi are selfless; they only care about others." Anakin replied.

"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the wise?" Palpatine asked, stirring every single one of Anakin's shit and windmill sensors into squealing life.

"No." was his only reply.

"I thought not. It's not a story that the Jedi would tell you. It's a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the Midichlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side, he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying."

"He could actually… save people from death?" Anakin asked. He could feel Ahsoka's utter agony and terror, from the moment that she was shot, as the Chancellor spoke. "The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities many consider to be unnatural."

"Wh… what happened to him?"  _and how exactly do you know all of this?_ Anakin wondered.

"He became so powerful the only thing he was afraid of was… losing his power, which, eventually of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew; then his apprentice killed him in his sleep." Palpatine looked contemplative for a few moments, before continuing. "Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself."

"Is it possible to learn this power?" Anakin asked, softly.

"Not from a Jedi." Palpatine replied.

Anakin sat back slightly.  _Ah. He is thinking about it. He will not denounce me as a Sith. Fortunately._

"Chancellor, I came here to inform you that I am being dispatched, along with Master Kenobi, when General Grievous is located."

"I thought that the Order's plan was to send just one Jedi?" Palpatine asked.

"With Ahsoka's injuries, they have decided that it is better for me to leave Coruscant for a while, and have something to distract myself with."

"I understand. I hope that your search for him ends soon." Using a very tiny sliver of the Force, he touched a control on the underside of his desk, which obligingly produced a chime.

"Ah. I have good news. Our Clone Intelligence Units have discovered the location of General Grievous. He is hiding in the Utapau system. They were analysing their signals take, and detected a partial message from the Chairman of Utapau."

Anakin grinned slightly.

"I worry about the collective wisdom of the Council if they didn't initially select you for this assignment. You are the best choice by far … but, they can't always be trusted to do the right thing."

"They try, Chancellor." Anakin said. "I need to deliver this information, and check on Ahsoka."

_Ah. I went too fast. He is uncomfortable, even slightly suspicious. I will have to handle future attempts even more carefully._

Anakin stepped out of the door, and it slid shut behind him.

_There is no reason to warn Grievous. The Jedi would be suspicious if they arrived and found him waiting for them. He's only a Kaleesh, after all. I do wish those blasted Nikto had taken Tano out from under Skywalker. The idea of the two being together… it was hard enough to watch her kiss him without reacting._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

After taking a triple dose of stimshots and anti-intoxicant packs, Anakin still felt nauseous. Without really thinking, he pulled over at a small fuelling station a kilometre from the Temple, and stepped inside. He collected a six pack of lum, and a few packets of fried bacon chips, which had a very understated rainbow stripe across the packet, indicating that they were for both human and Togruta consumption.

Once he'd paid, he loaded them onto the passenger seat of his speeder, before taking off, and continuing to the Temple.


	16. Last minutes before departure

Anakin tried not to think too much, as he dropped his airspeeder into his parking space, hearing it settle onto its landing gear with a dull hiss of hydraulics. Once it had fully landed, he sat there for a moment, remembering the missed opportunity for a kiss with Ahsoka just a day earlier.

Steeling himself for a barrage of memories, Anakin climbed out of the speeder, and looked around briefly. He remembered all of the times he'd worked with Ahsoka on his speeder, carrying out the simple (by his standards) tasks of conducting repairs. Ahsoka had been enthusiastic enough to simply spend time with her Master. Getting covered in speeder lubricant and engine oil hadn't been an issue in the slightest.

There'd even been time, early in their relationship as Master and Padawan, for Anakin to build a simple podracer for Ahsoka to drive. They'd used a pair of starfighter turbines, the flight controls from the same craft, and a discarded chair from the council chambers. It'd been confiscated after they did a doughnut run using it, and ended up shaking a CSF pursuit speeder by taking a shortcut through the undercity at Mach two. Typically, Obi-wan and Yoda had been waiting for them, once the descriptions had been rung in. The doughnuts had also been confiscated.

He smiled, remembering the squeak he'd managed to wring from Ahsoka as he made the turn. It'd mentioned some sort of female deity. She'd been so cute, and so thoroughly untouchable. He hadn't really noticed her growing up, until that night after Teiron. Even then, he'd taken a while to get used to the idea.

Then he turned into one of the workshops. He had a little presentation box in his room. It'd had some ceremonial medal he'd never really earned in it. That'd do for the box. Now, he just needed the contents. A small piston ring quickly proved to possess the right dimensions. He just had to hope that plating it with a few thousand credits worth of Aurodium wouldn't cause any trouble down the line.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Master Shaak-Ti was reading one of her Mills and Boone romance novels to me. She should have signed a contract for the audio version, really. Sometimes, I wanted to laugh, or groan, or comment. Jedi in love seemed to be a big part of whatever book she'd found. All that physically unrequited love seemed to make for good stories, and the drama that inevitably followed any consummation was usually the climax of the book. The fictional Jedi Councils were always death on the couples, who would then grandly resign from the order, and marry hours later, before going on to have children together in the epilogue.

I couldn't even open my eyes. It wasn't just my eyes that didn't work. I couldn't twitch a single muscle, anywhere in my body. I'd managed something earlier, when Anakin was talking to me, but I had no idea if he'd seen it. Ever since I was in the ambulance, I'd been aware of what was going on around me, just entirely unable to do anything, say anything, or reach out with the Force. I could just hear what everyone said, and feel them moving around me.

I knew I was safe. We togruta are big on sticking together. Helping people who need helping. Probably why so many togruta become Jedi. Master Shaak-Ti was nearby. She'd been there since Skyguy came to visit this morning.

I heard the door slide open. Pretty much the only sense that still worked was my echolocation and hearing, along with my sense of smell. Although the hospital smell seemed to override everything else. The footsteps sounded like Skyguy. Not that I ever called him that anymore.

"Ahsoka." His voice sounded ravaged, slightly hoarser than usual. "I'm not going be able to visit you for a few days. Probably a couple of weeks, really. I'm being sent to help Obi-wan take down General Grievous." I felt a sad smile, as his facial muscles twitched. It wasn't something I'd have known for sure with a stranger. But I knew what one of Skyguy's smiles felt like. This was sad. There were also warm, savage and knee-melting, each with their own subtle signature. "They're trying to keep me busy. So I'm not brooding about you. About us."

He wasn't going to propose while I'm in a coma, was he?

"If...when I get back from this, I'll be here with you. For you. However long that means. I love you."

I felt my lekku suddenly burn, as if the blood supply to them had suddenly doubled. I knew it was an illusion. But I didn't care. He was still talking.

"When you wake up, there's something I'd like to ask you to do. I love you so very much."

There was a scrunching noise from the large bowl various Jedi had been filling with treats and snack food. The smells of some of the items had started to drive me mad within hours. I guess Skyguy had got something for me.

There was a click, as if he'd just put a small box down next to my increasingly full box of gifts. "Don't go away, Snips. I love you so much."

I couldn't answer. I couldn't even reach out with the Force. I couldn't even cry about it. Then the door hissed, and he was gone.

 _I love you too._  I tried to send after him.

Master Shaak-Ti waited for a few moments, then I felt her pick up the box. I didn't really care too much. I knew what was inside already.

"Ahsoka..." she said, slightly surprised.

Then she picked up my hand, and gently slipped what felt like a piston cap, just the right size, onto my left ring finger.

"He's plated it with aurodium." She whispered, before sitting back, and starting to read again, while my mind was still whirling from having an engagement ring on my hand. I couldn't see it, or touch it, but it was a constant sensation.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin had to fight back tears as he stepped through the doors of the medcenter. Ahsoka had looked exactly the same as she had hours before. He'd known, inside, that her condition wasn't going to change quickly.

He had a job to do, though. He needed to help finish the conflict he'd helped to start, three long, dangerous and brutal years before.

He owed it to the galaxy.

His quarters were slightly cold, betraying the lack of any visitors to them who would have noticed the chill. The heater must have stopped working, he guessed.

The room seemed to echo with Ahsoka's laughter, the sense of her presence. The imperceptible scent of her.

His bed was unmade, the sheets rumpled. A pillow was lodged above his small wardrobe. When he'd… they'd… last been using it, they'd been using it together, as their relationship changed from pure, simple love, and a certain amount of simple physical desire to physical consummation and a redoubling of their emotional ties. Feeling a slight surge of cleanliness, Anakin straightened the sheets, and collected one of the pillows from the far side of the room, where it had ended up during their passion.

As he tucked the covers back in place, he found a small, cute sock, embroidered with a kybuck, that had slipped down the side of the bed. Every one of her socks had a cute animal on it. It was her way of reminding herself that she was still seventeen, and should have been attending school and, had she not been a Jedi, going out with boys, not fighting on the front line in a galactic war.

He just collapsed onto the bed, holding it, as he gave into his emotions for a few minutes.

Afterwards, it was time for business again.

His duffel bag was where he'd left it. Captain Sisko had shuttled both of their bags down from the Sullust when the Venator Star Destroyer dropped into Coruscant Orbit. Knowing what he'd find, Anakin cracked open one of the outer pockets of Ahsoka's bag, and located the packet of jekoai-spiced jerky. He tucked it back in with a smile.

Collecting his own bag, he headed for the elevator that would take him to the Council Chambers.

When Anakin arrived, the small number of Masters present on Coruscant were around a holotable, trying to extract some meaning from what looked like a recent data dump of all separatist intersystem communications.

"Masters." He said.

To his surprise, Mace Windu waved him closer with what looked like a smile.

"Anakin." He responded. "Glad you can join us. We've been trying to use R7 here to trace back these communications and map what is left of the separatist fleet command and control structure."

"I've got some news, actually." Anakin said. "While I was meeting with the chancellor, a message came in, from clone intelligence. They've found a partial message in a diplomatic transmission. According to this message, General Grievous is on Utapau."

"Utapau?" Mace asked. "We've had contact with Baron Papanoida. He claimed that no-one was there."

"Act on this, we must, if true it is. The capture of General Grievous will end this war. Quickly and decisively we should proceed." Yoda interjected.

"Anakin," Obi-Wan asked. "Have you got a copy of the message?"

"He's on Utapau." Anakin repeated. "We've got good information."

"From a source that the Order has not trusted for years." Mace pointed out. "You believe that we should commit Jedi and clones to an operation based solely on information provided by the Supreme Chancellor?"

"I do." Anakin replied. "I could feel no deception or attempts to mislead me when he brought up the information."

"Then, Master Skywalker, we shall." Mace told Anakin. "You are a member of the High Council, and a Jedi Master. If you believe that this information is valid, then we, your peers, shall treat it as such."

"Thank you, Master Windu." Anakin said.

"If this was an operation to confirm the validity of this information, we'd send in a lone Jedi. As a number of high-ranking communications nodes seem to be transmitting orders from that region of space, we can make the assumption, backed up by the judgement of a Jedi Master, that it is valid."

"Master Kenobi, Master Skywalker, you will be leading this operation. To assist you, we are assigning you the Republic and her battlegroup, along with the 501st battalion. Your total command will also include a dozen Jedi knights, along with their padawans."

"On my word?" Anakin asked.

"On your word, Master Skywalker." Mace seemed to be rather enjoying the look of terror on Anakin's face, as he realised exactly what he was now in charge of, and what forces he'd set in motion.

Anakin gave an abbreviated salute, using two fingers, then left the chamber.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The section of first person, told from Ahsoka's point of view, was inspired by Michael Morpurgo's Cool, which is told through a mixture of newspaper cuttings and first person narrative, from the point of view of a coma patient.


	17. Departure for Utapau

Although it didn't feel like it to Anakin, the Coruscant system primary was shining between the spacescrapers as he and Obi-Wan made their way to the Sullust, which was docked in one of the remaining capital berths at the main military spaceport, perhaps an hour from the Jedi temple.

"I'm glad to be coming with you, Master." He said, as a number of LAAT gunships made final approaches to the main hanger, raising his voice to be heard over the engines.

"I'm glad as well, Anakin." His former master replied. "This way, I'm not going to be facing him alone."

"We are more than a match for him." Anakin stated. "Together."

"That we are." Obi-wan stated. "Together."

"Scared, Master?" Anakin asked, teasingly.

"Only a fool faces battle without fear, Anakin." His former master responded. "And while we are both fools in our ways, we are not foolish enough to approach battle without fear."

Anakin sobered slightly, before grinning again.

The clones at the boarding ramp snapped to attention as Anakin stepped aboard. At the far end of the ramp, he could see a small platoon of clones drawn up ready. Setting his shoulders, he marched up the ramp, before stopping at a line painted on the deckplates.

"Permission to come aboard, Lieutenant?" He asked the officer of the deck.

"Permission granted, General Skywalker. Good to have you with us again."

Overhead, they both heard the speakers blare out: "Task Force Saviour, arriving."

"I still want to know who called it that." Anakin muttered, as they moved deeper into the ship, heading for the Flag-Officer staterooms.

"It was the computer, Anakin." Obi-Wan pointed out. "We're fortunate that it was asked for a single word name, or we might have ended up with Task Force Byzantium Mynock like Ki-Adi Mundi did."

Anakin snorted. "Or Glorious Schutta."

"Did they ever catch who added the huttese expletives into the database?" Obi-Wan asked, remembering the furore that had surrounded the incident.

"They hired him, Master." Anakin said, slightly chuckling.

When they reached the flag-deck, They each selected a stateroom. Anakin moved into the most lavishly appointed room, as befitted his new status as the commander of an entire task force, consisting of more than three hundred and seventy thousand clones and other military personnel, fifteen star destroyers, four of the Venator Class, and the rest Victory Class destroyers, along with the Republic herself, a dozen acclamator assault ships and their entire fleet train.

Then he sat down, at his desk, and called up a communications program on his holoterminal, before placing a call.

"Admiral Harrington." He greeted the Sphynxian when she picked up the call at her bridge terminal.

"General Skywalker." She replied, coolly. "The Republic is ready to leave orbit at your command."

Anakin nodded, in acknowledgement. "That's not why I called, Admiral." Her eyebrows rose slightly. "I'm placing you in command of all Task Force Saviour space forces and operations."

Her face darkened slightly.

"General…"

"You're a better tactician than I am, Admiral." He replied. "Your plan above Coruscant left Grievous with no line of retreat that didn't involve fighting his way past one of our task-forces."

"Thank you." She replied. "I'll discuss any operational plans with you, of course, General."

"That would be interesting." He said.

"Anything else, General?"

"Nothing else. Carry on, Admiral Harrington."

"Sir." She replied, before cutting the link.

Anakin knew that Captain Sulu would want to stage some form of formal dinner, in honour of being the flagship of an entire task-force, especially after being chosen over more powerful and effective units such as the Republic or a Victory-Class destroyer. Resuming his duties for the moment, he wasn't overly surprised when the intercom chimed on his desk.

"Complements of Captain Sulu." He heard. "There is a staff dinner at nineteen hundred zulu time that he wonders if you would like to attend. All other captains will be attending."

"Tell Captain Sulu that I am honoured to have been invited, and will be attending." Anakin replied, formally.

"Very good, General Skywalker."

The communication terminal went blank.

Anakin knew what he had to do next. It was something that he did every time his circumstances changed.

"I, Anakin Skywalker, being sound of mind and body, and trusting the Force to guide me, do hereby cancel all previous wills and testaments, and direct my executor to pay all enforceable and unsecured debts, bills and other valid claims upon my estate. I direct them, once such payments have been made, to dispose of my remaining property as below.

To Ahsoka Tano, I give and bequeath my current lightsaber, the copy of the Jedi Path that I entrusted to her, and all of my worldly possessions not listed below. In the event that she has predeceased me, during the current period of hostilities, I direct my executor to ensure that she has a memorial worthy of my respect and love for her.

To Padmé Amidala, I give and bequeath half of my financial assets, and direct her to create a fund using them for the support of our children. I also give her personally a gift of thirty thousand credits, to dispose of as she wishes.

To my unborn children, I leave a training lightsaber each, along with a pendant of jhapor wood each. I also leave seventy credits to engrave their pendants with their names.

To Jedi Master Obi-wan Kenobi, I give and bequeath all of my lightsabers, excluding those listed elsewhere, along with a gift of fifteen thousand credits, to do with as he wishes.

To Jedi Master Shaak-Ti, I give and bequeath a gift of ten thousand credits, as thanks for her care for my former padawan during her recent illness.

To the Jedi Order, I give and bequeath all of my learning materials, excluding any mentioned elsewhere, including my training lightsabers. I also leave my remaining financial assets, and request that they use them to support Ahsoka Tano and my children during their careers as Jedi, or whatever path they chose to take in their lives.

Signed

Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Master, aboard RSS Sullust." He sat back, and read it through carefully several times, correcting his wording a couple of times, before sealing and dating the document, then sending it off to the Jedi Temple.

Then it was time to prepare for dinner.

Looking out a set of formal robes, he laid them out on the bed, making a critical examination, before judging them acceptable, and heading for the refresher, where he conducted appropriate ablutions, cleaning his entire body.

The warm water reminded him uncomfortably of the last shower he'd cared about taking, and the approach of his girlfriend during it. Using a mental exercise he usually used when some of the more vivid combat memories he'd been burdened with came to the front of his mind, Anakin replaced the images with the sensation of the water running over his body.

His towels, or rather those provided with the stateroom, were soft and very warming. They absorbed the water, before he dressed, making sure that his robes were in good order.

Finally , it was time to depart for the meal.

Stepping through the corridors, he was reminded how many sentient beings of all species crewed the massive Star Destroyer he was aboard. In one corridors alone, he stepped past twelve different near-human species, and another five members of races that were further divergent from his own. If he remembered his own lists, there were members of seventeen thousand different humanoid species among his crews.

Running through his own staff, he remembered that the gunnery officer aboard Sullust was a Nautolan, while the flight officer of the deck was a particularly irascible weequay. His thousand strong force of flight personnel had squadrons formed entirely from five different species, such as Black Squadron, led by a miralian ace with a reputation even larger than his ego among his fellow pilots, and credited with more than one hundred and twenty kills, including pirates, mandolorian extremists and assorted droid fighters.

Anakin had flown against him in the simulator a few times, trying to keep his skills sharp for the unlikely event of having to face an organic opponent. Without the Force, which a simulation very nearly stripped away from him, it was a tough duel to win.

Another cross corridor brought him to the flag dining room. Pausing at the door, Anakin adjusted his robes slightly, before stepping inside. Four or five squadron command teams were clustered together, clearly discussing manoeuvres, weaponry, and their lives. The crews presented had been selected from entire fleet, each individual unit chosen on merit alone, including Sullust, which, he hadn't been too surprised to learn, had the fifth most capable flight group in the entire Republic Navy. The other top flight groups were also assigned to his force, with perhaps fifteen thousandths of a percentage point separating their efficiency ratings. Dress and formal uniforms were everywhere, roughly split twenty/thirty/fifty between full dress uniform, mess dress and parade uniforms, drawn from four different branches of the military: clone forces, naval forces, starfighter command and logistics command.

Glancing around, inevitably, a section of the room was gathered around what looked suspiciously like a holoterminal showing gun camera footage from over Coruscant. As he watched, the V-wing interceptor from which the footage had been filmed took out two droid starfighters, before hooking around and nobbling a corvette with a volley of missiles.

He shook his head slightly. One-upmanship was an art among pilots. None had ever been known to pretend that they weren't overgrown children at heart. He knew, for instance, of a standing pot waiting for the first pilot to do a barrel roll inside a traffic tunnel on Coruscant. He also knew that starfighter command would be death on anyone who tried to collect it.

The room slowly came to attention as he stood, looking around.

 _Speeches_.  _I love speeches._

He paused, trying to find something sensible to say.

"Ah... good evening, everyone." He began, hopefully. "I'm glad to be serving with you all, and very happy to see you all tonight. As you are hopefully aware, we are heading for the Utapau system, which is currently believed to host everyone's favourite cyborg, General Grievous. We don't know how major his force is, as the majority of the separatist fleet was lost over Coruscant. Admiral Harrington will be directing our space operations, while General Kenobi and I will co-ordinate our ground forces." He smiled, hoping that it wouldn't be seen as sheer nerves. "I understand that catering are about to bring through everyone's food, so I don't have anything else to say."

There was good natured laughter, followed by the arrival of the food.

Anakin made conversation, and mingled, before disappearing to his stateroom.

Once the door was closed, he pulled up his holoterminal.

"Ahsoka." He dictated. "If you are reading this, I am presumed dead. Don't believe it until you see my body. If there is a way, I will return to your side. I love you."

Then he saved the simple message, before crossing over to Obi-Wan’s cabin, and knocking on the door.

"Master." He said, when it opened. "Can we talk?"

"Certainly, Anakin." Obi-wan replied, stepping out of the doorway to allow his former padawan inside.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked.

"I wanted to talk, Master."

"A gentleman does not betray the confidences of a lady, Anakin."

"I was thinking more generally." Anakin replied.

Obi-wan shook his head.

"How did...?" He asked.

"After Satine's death, she was there for me. In the end, we became more than friends over time."

Anakin turned a shade of pink. "I..."

"I imagine that it was a bit more intense for you, judging by your reports."

"She's six years younger than me!" Anakin interjected, hotly, at first. "But I completely love her. More than life itself."

"Do not beware of such feelings, Padawan." Obi-wan declaimed. "To the light side, love leads you. Even when all seems lost, love will guide you."

Anakin started slightly.

"I've had access to the restricted stacks for a while. There are a lot of uncomfortable truths in them. Revan and Bastila Shan were married, and had a son. The Hero of Tython, she was a togruta. She married her ship's doctor. One of the most capable Jedi in history, pound for pound. Her midi-chlorian count was only a couple of percentage points below yours."

"They were three and a half thousand years ago." Anakin commented.

"There was never a rule, in the early days of our order, that led to anything that is now truth. Influential Masters wrote ninety percent of our customs. Very few of them were reacting to trends that aren't still as prevalent today."

"So..."

"So I don't trust the accepted wisdom." Obi-wan admitted.

"Does Master Shaak-Ti?"

"The only apprentices she has ever trained died on their first missions. She taught them according to the code."

"That's... cryptic, Master."

"I know."

Then the conversation turned to more important matters, such as the selection of beer and crisps.


	18. The Battle Over Utapau

**Hyperspace, two days from Utapau**

Anakin was drawn out of his meditations, currently being conducted with the aid of correlian whiskey and a holoconsole, by the chime that announced the arrival of a new holocall for him.

Reaching out to the console, he keyed it active.

“Master Skywalker,” The human Jedi healer on the other and of the holocomm said. “We’re calling to request permission from you, as Knight Tano’s next-of-kin, to use CRISPR therapy to increase her chance of a favourable outcome?”

“What is it?” Anakin asked.

“It’s a method of adjusting her genetic code, Master Skywalker.” The healer, who he now recognised as Knight Chilig-al, said. “With it, we should be able to reduce the rate of growth of her myelin tissue to match that of her nerve tissue.”

“I see.” Anakin replied, trying not to look confused that they were calling him about it.

“We need consent because of the fact that we are, ultimately, modifying her base DNA.” The healer explained. “As Knight Tano is in a coma, we can’t get her consent.”

“You have my consent.” Anakin replied. He decided to avoid suggesting that they adjust her digestive enzyme production as well. That would almost certainly be illegal.

“Thank you, Master Skywalker.” The healer replied. “If there is a change in her condition, we’ll call you immediately.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The republic fleet dropped out of hyperspace five light minutes away from Utapau. The Republic anchored the centre of the formation, flanked on each lateral corner by a Venator class star destroyer. Victory-II Destroyers provided the corners, with the remaining pair defending the flanks of the Venators. Ahead of the capital ships, the Acclamator-II assault ships formed a half globe, interspersed with carrack class cruisers and correlian CR-90 corvettes.

As soon as the fleet was out of hyperspace, the Venators opened their hangers, spilling hundreds of starfighters into space. V-wing and Eta-2 interceptors began to stream out from the carriers, taking their place in the screen. ARC-170 squadrons lifted next, deploying from the Republic and the Victory-Class destroyers as well as the Venators, along with Y-wing squadrons from the Star Destroyers.

On the flag bridge of Sullust, Anakin Skywalker was watching everything on the display. His mind, however, was back on Coruscant, with Ahsoka, as the light codes of friendly forces and starfighters dropped into battle formation.

Opposing the republic flotilla, the CIS had two Providence class dreadnoughts, six Lucrehulk battleships, and fifty frigates, corvettes and other light units. It was enough of a force to pose a serious threat to the success of the landing operation, were the engagement fought by tacticians of the calibre of Kendal Ozzel. As the Lucrehulks began to accelerate, they deployed their starfighter forces, sending eight thousand droid starfighters into the teeth of the republic flotilla, outnumbering the screening fighters four to one.

 

Rather than accelerate to meet the vulture droids head-on, the starfighters hung back within the screen. About fifteen seconds before the droids crashed home, the screen began blasting away, punching significant holes in the droid formation. The acclamator destroyers were particularly effective, firing proton torpedoes and concussion missiles programmed for proximity airbursts when they were within the mass of vulture droids. Perhaps seventeen hundred of the droids were destroyed or disabled by the wall of missile fire and the resulting high velocity shrapnel. The interceptors left their formation perhaps five seconds before the droids were due to arrive, building up the speed and mobility to mix with them at close quarters. Individual wing pairs broke off from their squadrons, and battle was joined. All too quickly, space was glistening with the explosions of both republic and droid fighters.

The main CIS force had been moving up behind their droids. When the screen came within range of their main batteries, they opened fire, damaging a number of the frigates and corvettes, and forcing the remainder to fall back to join the main formation, taking up positions out of the main line of fire.

Forming a wall at ninety degrees perpendicular to the system plane, the CIS units advanced, firing steadily at the republic formation. Several light cruisers exploded, along with a number of corvettes, their shields overwhelmed by turbolaser barrages. The CIS screen was taking casualties as well; seven of their frigates and corvettes had exploded. It took twelve minutes for the two formations to close to mutual suicide range.

Then, the republic formation broke apart. The Republic moved with the Venators, screening them against CIS units with the assistance of four acclamators. The carrack class cruisers formed into wolfpacks, taking advantage of their mobility. The victory class units, screened by the remaining acclamators and corvettes, broke into their individual subunits, operating as pairs, or in squadrons. One of the CIS battleships vomited air and debris, as a Y-wing squadron, covered by Black Squadron from the Sullust, tore through its defences, barraging dozens of proton torpedoes into the plating covering the reactor core. The fighters retreated as the core began to fail, before abruptly losing containment, leaving the battleship in five sections, each spinning away on a different trajectory.

A second battleship was forced to withdraw, as the Republic’s gunnery combined with the remainder of her squadron, including the Venator class destroyers. The barrage tore apart the shields protecting her main battery, shredding the majority of her offensive firepower with a single barrage.

At the edge of the formation, a pair of Munificent-class star frigates were bounced by a pack of carrack cruisers, who disabled one in a single blazing pass. The second, which was also damaged, retreated into the protection of a Providence class dreadnought, which forced the abandonment of a second pass with a wall of weapons fire.

Below the formation, a pair of Victory class destroyers fired a full broadside against the ventral shields of one of the providence class dreadnoughts. It fired back, taking down the shields of two of the escorting acclamators, one of which was badly enough damaged that it was shepherded out of the fight by its division-mate. The star destroyers’ second barrage punched through the armour of the dreadnought, shredding through, and nearly destroying two of the reactors.

On the bridge of the Republic, Admiral Harrington was controlling the entire fight.

“Garth two, your target is the battleship at 3.2” The simple code was adapted from graphs, third battleship along, second up.”

“On them.” The human officer in charge of that sub-formation replied, whipping his oversized carrack squadron around, and slashing them past the battleship, which was distracted by a major fire in its port hanger. The turbolasers shredded the hull, having knocked down the shields with carefully sequenced and modulated fire, sending the massive warship toppling into the CIS formation, dead in space.

“Stormgrin, hit 2.1 while it’s evading.”

“Aye Aye.” The miralian admiral replied. His squadron had lost three star destroyers in the battle of Coruscant, two of them while covering a squadron of Venators against a CIS battleship formation during the retreat. All of the Venators had successfully retreated. Three of the four battleships had been destroyed in the fight.

The remaining five star destroyers surged onto their new vector, guns blazing. A massive storm of ion cannon and turbolaser fire savaged the CIS battleship as it vectored to avoid the out of control unit, knocking down its shields, and then punching through the hull plating, leaving a second battleship in as many minutes drifting out of the fight, all offensive and defensive systems destroyed.

With four of their eight capital ships destroyed, along with thirty-four of their screening units, the CIS commander attempted to withdraw. His losses were significant, particularly when measured against the minimal losses of their opponents, who’d lost three corvettes, two light cruisers and three hundred starfighters. The fighter losses were split equally between V-wing and Eta-2 units, although about a dozen Y-wings and ARC-170 craft has also been lost.

Admiral Harrington was in no mood to let them escape.

Remembering the casualties over Coruscant, she issued her final order of the battle. “General Pursuit. Admiral Onasi, and No Mercy.”

The republic fleet accelerated in pursuit of the opposing force, quickly overtaking the CIS squadron, before systematically pounding them. The last CIS unit blew up ten minutes after their attempt to break off the action had begun. Two republic corvettes were destroyed during the action, and four acclamator-II assault ships were pounded by turbolaser fire. The republic fleet made no effort to recover the escape pods. There was a Red Cross hospital ship following them into the system, so they could take a certain amount of revenge without causing actual harm.

Several CIS transports were in low orbit over Utapau, massive warships, using the same hull as a Lucrehulk battleship, but designed to land larger numbers of troops than a line Lucrehulk. They were still formidable, but more sparsely armed by a significant margin.

A slashing pass from a pair of carrack cruiser squadrons was the first attack directed at them. The two ‘en-flute’ Lucrehulks laid down a curtain of fire, which forced the twelve cruisers to break off their attack. Then, the Republic’s screen slid apart, and the dozen victory class destroyers took up positions to provide fire support.

The first broadside filled space with massive amounts of coherent light and proton torpedoes from the lighter units. Watching from the flag bridge aboard Sullust, Anakin had to turn away from the display for a moment, until the computer applied damping to the tactical display.

The return fire, from both en-flutes, would have been sufficient to drive away a pair of victory class destroyers. Instead, spread over fifteen star destroyers, it was wasted.

Admiral Harrington, by comparison, had focused her heavy gunfire on one of the CIS units, leaving the screen to keep the second en-flute honest. The shields of the massive transport ship flared, dissipating the energy. It took almost a minute of steady gunfire, without the mobility of the screen being able to play a part, as it was almost impossible to flank the en-flutes, which had situated themselves in the upper atmosphere.

Admiral Harrington had no intentions of putting a cruiser squadron through even the upper layers of atmosphere, due to the small risk of them conducting an accidental planet skip. The results of bouncing a three hundred and fifty metre light cruiser off atmosphere were not pretty.

Her remaining starfighters, on the other hand, were a different matter. Tearing through the top layers of the stratosphere, where the battleships were positioned, the horde of fighters began a barrage of laser and missile fire against the rear shields of the targeted warship.

Fifteen minutes into the close action, the first CIS transport ship exploded. Her consort lasted another twelve minutes, facing the constant gunfire of the entire formation; with her own weapons firing almost until she was destroyed.

Despite their orders, Admiral Harrington wasn’t surprised when the entire formation flashed their running lights, before several carrack cruisers began SAR operations. There were some things that always went without saying. She hoped that the commander of the transports had survived. Even if he or she was probably a neomoidian, she wanted to meet him.

From near the planetary capital, volleys of surface to orbit turbolaser fire began lashing out.

“Alek, get us a line of sight on those turbolasers.” She snapped to her flag captain. The Republic’s main drive units flared in response, pushing the mile long battleship into a different orbit, that gave her a direct line of sight to the weapons batteries.

“Single shots, Jace.” She said, looking at her gunnery officer. “We’re not going for a base delta zero here.”

“Aye aye. Single directed shots only, Ma’am.”

Ahead of the bridge, the capital ship’s shields began to flare, as they absorbed fire from the ground.

Then her own broadside flashed, rewarded below with flares of light, and explosions that were significantly larger than the turbolasers themselves would produce. After three minutes of duelling with the ground-based weapon systems, the last weapon exploded.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Master Shaak-Ti was watching HNN again. The broadcaster’s voice was a reassuring drone, with a crisp Coruscanti accent. It was a special report.

“… We have just been looking at the various possibilities for the current location of Darth Sidious.” The broadcaster said. “It’s most likely he is somewhere in the Outer Rim, where access to the holonet is simple, and encryption software is commonplace.”

As I lay there, I remember the final words I’d heard, before I nearly died.

“Darth Sidious sends his regards.” I remembered hearing, from a massive Nikto.

Darth Sidious. Darth Sidious did this to me.

“Anakin Skywalker, hero of the Second Battle of Coruscant, is currently off-planet, presumably leading the search for Galactic Enemy Number One.” We’ll have a special report later from Anita Shalma, looking at the rumours surrounding ‘The Hero with No Fear.’”

I sat up.

Then I realised what I’d done.

“Master Shaak-Ti?” I asked.

She swung her chair, an extremely-comfortable swivel chair from the nurse’s station, at a guess, from the slight squeak, around, nearly falling out of it.

“Ahsoka?” she asked. I tried to open my eyes, but they forced themselves shut again almost immediately from the blinding light levels.

“Master.” I responded, almost a spinal reflex when addressing a member of the high council. Even sitting up was quickly tiring me.

Two people, a Twi’lek and a human, from the minimal map I could get as they opened the door, burst in to the room. There was a sound of a switch being adjusted, and a whirring from the window as the large shutters swung into place.

“Knight Tano?” I heard. It was a deep voice, probably the human. “Try to open your eyes now.”

I opened them, looking around a room that was still painfully bright, but tolerable enough that I was able to keep my eyes open.

The first thing I did, much to their surprise, was to lift my left hand. I looked, for the first time, at the ring Skyguy had placed on my hand, before leaving for the war.

It was enough to make me start crying, as they gathered around me, conducting reflex checks, and doing all the other things that medical staff do with coma patients.

 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

In the transport bay of Sullust, waiting to board the lead dropship, Anakin swore slightly as his comlink chimed with an incoming call.

“Master Skywalker.” He said, pressing the accept call button.

It was the last voice he expected.

“Yes.” He heard. “Yes, I will.”

“Ahsoka?” he asked, confused, stepping into the landing ship.

“I will.” She repeated.

“Ahsoka?” he repeated, slumping onto a seat in the dropship, and buckling in for the landing.

“I will marry you.” She said.

“Whoa, Snips.” He said. “I didn’t even know you were awake.”

There were the sounds of a tussle from the other end of the comlink, before a new voice took over.

“Anakin.” It was Shaak-Ti speaking now. “Ahsoka asked me to let her call you.”

“When did she wake up?” Anakin asked.

“In the last ten minutes. I was watching HHN, they were doing a report on the hunt for Sidious. I was pleased that they have no idea what your actual mission is. Then, I heard her say my name, looked around, and she was sitting up.”

Anakin knew that openly crying on a military dropship wasn’t normal procedure. He couldn’t help himself, as tears of sheer relief ran down his face.

Then, Ahsoka took over the comlink again.

“When you get back to Coruscant, there’s something I need to tell you.” She said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CRISPR Gene Editing is a real medical technique, currently undergoing testing and development, and under attack from medical ethics campaigners. Without going too far into it, I will say that I don’t agree with the majority of their fears, and suspect that “designer babies” will remain a pipe-dream for the foreseeable future.  
> Hyperspace, two days from Utapau
> 
> I know exactly what is going to happen in the next few chapters, and it is just a matter of finding the spare time away from my university studies to work on this fic.


	19. The Battle on Utapau

The drop into atmosphere was fairly typical. The LAAT gunships shook a bit as they passed through the atmosphere, keeping their speed higher than ‘Could hit with slingshot’ but below ‘leaving giant fiery contrails across a quarter of a continent’. Each gunship was weaving around to avoid ground fire, as were the transports hauling in the AT-TE platoons and their embarked clone troopers. Outside of the hatch, Anakin could see the black bursts of smoke that marked flak bursts. Now and again, he heard and felt shrapnel striking the armour of the gunship.

To the left and right of each gunship, a pair of V-wing intercepters provided a close escort against hostile fighters. Their bright, individual paint schemes were a counterpoint to the gunships, which, at best, featured nose-art, usually a half-naked humanoid female. Above and below the layer of gunships, squadrons of Y-wing bombers were standing by.

Perhaps fifty yards away, he could feel Obi-Wan, who, not overly surprisingly for someone who disliked combat flying, was in a Y-wing. The mass of the craft, and its heavy shields, apparently served as something of a security blanket for him. The gunner also helped.

Ahead of the lead elements of the assault, Anakin saw, perhaps a thousand feet from the ground, the blossoming of parachutes. The chutes were elite clone paratroopers dropped from the edge of the atmosphere, out of the hangars of acclamator cruisers. He knew that there would also be commando elements mixed in, four man teams of special operations troops, each with a specific objective. Each paratrooper was armed with a DC-17m ICWS, which combined, in one package, a rocket-propelled anti-tank weapon, a sniper rifle and a blaster rifle. It had been learnt the hard way that a DC-15 was worth squat against a spider-walker.

It wasn’t long until the communications system was rattling with combat chatter. On the ground, even without support, the lead elements were fighting their way through the CIS positions they’d been assigned to take. Individual bombers began to peel off, making near vertical approaches to targets, identified by commando squads, engaging AA batteries and surface artillery.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“Gold leader, this is Havoc squad.” Obi-Wan heard, over his comlink. “There is a heavy AA battery at grid fifteen-seven, thirty-four-niner. It has a line of sight to the approach to drop zone alpha.”

“Copy that, Havoc.” Obi-Wan replied. “Gold Squadron, with me.”

The Y-wings rolled ninety degrees, before making their descent, levelling out perhaps three hundred feet above the surface. What followed, Obi-Wan was very happy to leave to his astromech. Anakin would have been all-but skimming the ground, on manual control. Instead, the bombers maintained a dignified height of perhaps one hundred feet, low enough that their shields flared, at times, with fire from droid troopers on the ground. The turret gunners were responding to targets of opportunity. Above the bombers, a squadron of Eta-2 interceptors provided top cover. It wasn’t long before they were nearly bounced by a unit of vulture droids, launched from a ground base. A dogfight ensued, but the bombers continued, quickly picking up a flight of V-wings on harassment duty for cover.

The final stage of the attack was the most challenging. The bombers would have to pop up, acquire targets for their torpedoes, and launch them, within the six seconds it would take to overfly the CIS position.

Obi-Wan led the attack. Popping up over the ridge that protected the battery from the south, he briefly kicked the starfighter into hover mode. Once hovering, he fired six proton torpedoes, in three pairs, at the octuple barrelled heavy cannon emplacements. There were an even dozen of the weapons, each capable of downing four gunships in as many seconds. Two of them merely exploded in place. The weapon mounting of the third did an aerial one-eighty, crashing down ten feet from the cruciform mount it had formerly sat on.

The rest of his squadron had overflown the AA guns, although of the weapons were burning, when Obi-Wan kicked his starfighter into forward again.

“This is Gold Leader. AA battery at Fifteen-seven, thirty-four-niner has been disabled. All guns destroyed, we have taken no casualties.” Below him, on the ground, he could see a firefight in progress. “Commandos are following up the airstrikes.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

When the gunship touched down, and the hatch swung open, Anakin looked for Ahsoka briefly, before vaulting out; slightly shaken by the reminder she wasn’t fighting at his side any more. Igniting his lightsaber, he led his picked unit of the 501st legion into action. Perhaps a two hundred metres away, on the far side of a ridge, the airborne troopers were engaged directly with the main body of the CIS force.

Around him, he could see other lightsabers, glowing green, blue and yellow, as he jogged towards the main engagement zone. Behind him, he could hear the sound of AT-TE walkers beginning their advance.

From above, the battlefield was a light show. Blue blaster bolts hissed out from positions overrun by the clones, while CIS units fired back with red shots. Snipers fired from the ridgeline, and rock formations surrounding the canyon. The CIS position controlled the main approach route to the planetary capital, Pau city, ensconced in a sinkhole for protection from the desert winds. Cracking it open wasn’t optimal, but a tactical necessity if they were going to have units going house to house.

Overhead, Anakin heard the groan of the second wave of gunships passing over at five thousand feet. The gunships were carrying the remainder of the 501st, five full companies of clones, along with two brigades of clones armoured and equipped for street-fighting. They wouldn’t have armoured support. Taking an AT-TE walker company into an urban area was asking for trouble.

At one point in the CIS defensive line, Anakin could see trouble. Pulling out his macrobinoculars, as the clones headed into action, he spotted General Grievous, along with a squad of magnagaurds, holding a key section of the CIS position.

“This is General Skywalker.” He said, pulling out his comlink. “I have eyes on Geronimo. Requesting close air support.” He pressed a control on his macrobinoculars, which gave him the grid reference using a laser rangefinder and GPS. “Grid reference forty-five-seven, twenty-eight-two.”

“Copy that, General Skywalker.” He heard, in response. “This is Frost-Wampa, starting my run.”

Rather than a bomber pilot, it was a gunship that would carry out the strike.

“Copy that, Frost-Wampa.”

The gunship popped up over the ridge, hovering perhaps ten feet over the heads of the clone troopers still streaming to the attack, now supported by light and heavy armoured units.

He’d dropped five brigades, nearly fifteen thousand clones, via gunship, for the frontal assault, supported by three armoured divisions, and their mechanised infantry. They were supporting the full brigade of paratroopers who’d dropped ahead of them.

A volley of four missiles hurtled into the enemy position, closely followed by a salvo of green cannon fire, and the beams of the turrets. The majority of the gunships were returning to orbit, in order to disembark the second wave of clones. Across the battlefield, the hundred units that had been devoted to close air support were punching out strong points with missile fire, and clearing trenches of droids with their lasers.

Once the smoke cleared, Anakin reconnoitred the strongpoint. He could see the remains of five magnagaurds. There was no sign of Grievous.

“I have no eyes on Geronimo.” He reported. “All units, be advised. Geronimo is currently somewhere on the battlefield.”

Then he pressed on, into the fray. They’d find him later. Nothing, including stray gas molecules, was going to from escape a planet blockaded by fifteen capital ships. Particularly not when the capital ships were supported by ten acclamator cruisers, several thousand starfighters and dozens of corvettes and light cruisers.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The assassin walked confidently through the open doors of the Jedi temple. Even in wartime, it seemed, the Jedi weren’t interested in examining those wearing Jedi robes. That was a good thing. It meant they wouldn’t find the hypo in his right pocket, loaded with a dose of military poison. It would cause symptoms that mimicked a natural respiratory arrest.

Mentally consulting the map his client had sent him, he continued through the building, up a turbolift, and into the medical centre.

This was his niche.

He specialised in follow-up assassinations, when a first attempt had failed, and the victim was in hospital. He’d give them an injection, and they’d die. Killing mobsters and corrupt politicians was rewarding, in its way. He always made sure it was painless for them.

It was painless for him as well.

He’d been told his target was a Jedi knight. That didn’t concern him too much. A sleeping Jedi would wake more easily than a normal person, but only if they felt malice and intent. He didn’t bear his targets any grudges. His paymaster had said that the Jedi had been injured after attempting to steal a quantity of drugs stored in the temple to sell on the black market.

Before he entered the room, he checked the card on the door.

 _Ahsoka Tano._ He read, followed by a list of her injuries _. Spinal damage, slugthrower wounds and intestinal perforation. Poor woman. And a missing kidney as well_. He vaguely recognised the name.

Then, with a casual looking glance around the corridor, he stepped inside.

There was a togruta Jedi, her head tilted backwards in sleep, sitting in a high-backed swivel chair, facing the window. She was older, but clearly uninjured. _Must be the Master._ He decided.

Then he stepped over to the bed, and froze.

 _Shavit. She’s just a karking kid._ He thought, looking at the vulnerable, heavily intubated togruta. _I was told I would be killing a Jedi knight, not a kid._ She was curled up slightly, as if missing a soft animal that usually slept under her arm. One of her thumbs was just kissing the corner of her mouth. _She could be my daughter. And she… she’s Anakin Skywalker’s padawan. The sludgenews are pretty sure where she is, usually, even with DORA (1), and she’s been off-planet for the last six months. One afternoon at the temple isn’t going to give her unsupervised access to any drugs, or the black market contacts to dispose of them._

He made a decision.

Crossing over to the Jedi Master in the chair, he shook her gently, to awaken her.

This was one job he wasn’t going to finish. And he’d clearly been lied to by his hirer. And that was a breach of _his_ contract conditions.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Shaak-Ti started as she was shaken awake.

Behind her, there was a human male, dressed in a Jedi robe, whose features were almost unidentifiable. The only way she could describe him, even briefly, was unremarkable looking.

He dropped something into her hand.

"I've just given you a hypo containing five cc of KA-seven-fifty eight." He explained. "It's full, sealed, and unused."

 _What is a healer of ours doing carrying something like that around?_ She thought, even as her fingers closed over the tube of lethal poison.

Her Force senses told her something else. The man wasn't a Jedi. And he felt very guilty.

"I was sent here for her." He explained, with a nod towards Ahsoka.

"To do what?" Shaak-Ti asked, already knowing the answer.

"To administer the contents of that hypo to her.”

Without hesitating, Shaak-Ti reached out in the Force, slapping the silent alarm panel with a disc of kinetic energy.

“Why didn’t you?” She asked to buy time for the sentinels to arrive.

“Because I don’t kill children.” The man replied, his sincerity clear through the Force. “I know you just triggered the silent alarm. It’s what anyone would do in this situation. I’m not going to run.”

Behind them, the door crept open, and a pair of Jedi, dressed in black robes, stepped through, their lightsabers drawn.

Shaak-Ti held up a hand to stop them, or at least keep them at the back of the room. Behind them, a healer stepped through, before triaging a still sleeping Ahsoka.

Then, the sentinels led the way for their new guest, and Shaak-Ti gently adjusted the covers over Ahsoka. With the younger togruta correctly covered, Shaak-Ti relaxed back into her chair, and used the Force to convince a serving station to produce caf. She wasn’t going to relax again until Anakin was back on Coruscant.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

On Utapau, the brief war for control of the planet was over and dusk had fallen. The republic force had breached the defence lines, while the airborne units deployed to Pau city had recaptured the area.

Of the fifty thousand clone troopers deployed, four thousand had lost their lives. Seventy gunships had been shot down at low altitude while conducting air support missions. Ninety three AT-TE walkers had been disabled or destroyed. Another seven thousand clones were wounded, to various levels of severity. The clone paratroopers had lost a sixth of their number outright, suffering five hundred fatal casualties and two thousand non-fatal casualties, despite having superior training and equipment. Of the thousand clone commandos who’d been dropped with the paratroopers, nine hundred had survived, despite the difficult missions they had been sent to accomplish.

It was a victory.

Standing on the ridgeline that had shielded the main landing zone from the CIS front line, Anakin looked over the battlefield. He was using the low light setting on his macrobinoculars to give him a sense of the engagement, even though he’d been in the heart of it. Everywhere he looked, there were corpses in white armour. Initial analysis of combat telemetry suggested that they had engaged close to fifty thousand battledroids of all classes during the landing operation. The mounds of debris and scrapped chassis’ reminded him of hundreds of combat zones.

The Force saved his life. Without knowing why, he suddenly threw himself forward, hearing the hum and hiss of a vibrosword passing through the air where he’d been standing just seconds earlier.

Without thought, his lightsaber came into his hand, and flared to life. The blue light of the blade betrayed a hulking silhouette.

 _Master!_ Anakin called, making the sending clearly as urgent as it could be. Obi-Wan was a mile away, at a temporary command base the clones had set up. Even with the Force, and his reflexes, the two minutes it would take for a Jedi to cover a mile was an uncomfortably long time to be facing this opponent.

General Grievous took a step forward, and Anakin could see him clearly. Rather than lightsabers, the cyborg was armed with a four vibroswords, presumably made with lightsaber-resistant materials. Each sword was humming an infrasonic note.

“Anakin Skywalker.” The cyborg almost purred. “I hoped to find you.”

“General Grievous.” Anakin replied, dropping into a form III guard, as the two circled. “This is your last chance to surrender.”

“You cannot stop me.” Grievous replied. His left hand upper sword and the sword he held in his lower right hand lashed out at the Jedi. Anakin replied with a parry, batting one of them away, and twisted away from the other.

Then, Anakin went on the offensive. Lightsaber flashing, he advanced on the cyborg, utilising Shien and Juyo strikes to press him as hard as possible, countering or evading attacks from Grievous in the process. He could feel his Master approaching at a Jedi sprint perhaps reaching forty-five miles per hour.

The first attack from the cyborg general he failed to parry was nearly his last mistake. The sword whipped around at chest height, forcing him to twist sideways, punching the ground with the Force to throw himself clear, and guided himself to his feet, landing, slightly off-balance, in a ready stance.

Obi-Wan jogged up to him as he regained his balance.

“Sloppy, Anakin.” He chided his former padawan.

“Shall we focus on Grievous, Master?” Anakin replied. “And save the commentary for later.”

“I suppose.” Obi-Wan said.

The two Jedi fanned out, forcing even the cyborg to divide his attention between the two. Then they lunged in, attacking from opposite directions.

Initially, Grievous was able to hold both of them at bay, devoting a pair of swords to each attacker.

From what was coming over his headset, Anakin became aware that he had an audience.

“Rex, belay that.” He snapped. “Cody, the same.” He’d been able to hear both clones calling in an AT-TE walker. Being hit by the main gun of an AT-TE wasn’t something he had an interest in happing.

“We’ll fire it anyway, General. Round incoming in five.”

The clone gunner fired a shot, placed about ten feet over the two Jedi’s heads. The sonic crack of a hypersonic mass driver round was enough to cause Grievous to lose focus for a few fractions of a second. Anakin and Obi-Wan, aware of the incoming projectile, didn’t, and took lethal advantage.

Anakin rolled his lightsaber upwards slightly, bypassing the vibrosword the cyborg had been interposing. The blade of plasma slashed into the duranium dome of Grievous’s skull, but was deflected upwards enough to miss the brain or its casing.

Obi-Wan had launched his own attack while Anakin was striking out. His lightsaber came up, rising through the stroke, and severed one of the cyborg’s legs, and the arm on the same side of the body. As the cyborg fell, suddenly unbalanced, Obi-Wan brought his lightsaber back down, slicing through the duranium neck column and the organic elements it protected, leaving the head of the cyborg well-separated from the body.

“Well. That’s that taken care of.” Obi-Wan said, turning his back on the headless cyborg. “Cody, get a team up here with a secure bodybag.”

Above Anakin, the stars seemed to shine a little bit brighter.

Standing there, he just watched them, seeing the flashes of light reflecting from star destroyers and assault ships as they passed overhead.

Ten calm minutes later, his comlink went. Opening it up, he saw that it was ten in the morning on Coruscant.

“Anakin.” It was Shaak-Ti, in her faux-grandmother voice. “There’s been a development. An assassin just attempted to finish off Ahsoka. We’ve got him in our protective custody unit now.”

“Protective?” Anakin asked, trying to figure out why he was still alive.

“He decided not to go through with the attempt and surrendered to me.” Shaak-Ti explained. According to the database, he is suspected in the deaths of dozens of underworld figures who mysteriously died in hospital after assassination attempts had failed.”

“I’ll be back as soon as possible.” Anakin said. “Is Ahsoka there?”

“She’s still asleep, Anakin. She doesn’t even know what happened.”

“Tell her I’ll be arriving in around forty-eight hours.”

“It took you nine days to reach Utapau.” She pointed out.

“I’m catching an Acclamator back.” He explained. The assault ships had a class 0.6 hyperdrive, significantly faster than the class two mounted on the Republic.

“We’ll be waiting for you.” She replied, before cancelling the call, just after the comlink started to shake in a way that suggested Ahsoka had wanted it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) DORA: Defense Of the Republic Act, based on the Defense Of the Realm Act in UK law, which gave the government additional powers with regards to compulsory purchase of land, press censorship and prevention of espionage.


	20. Reunion

When RAS _Bothawui_ dropped out of hyperspace, it was mid-morning in the Coruscant region in which the Jedi Temple was located.

Ten minutes later, Anakin launched his starfighter from the main docking bay, and spiralled down towards the planet. In the cockpit, he had his various possessions, along with a shapeless canvas bag.

The planetary orbitals were still clogged with combat debris. The hulks of star destroyers, cruisers, battleships and dreadnoughts formed a swirling mass around the planet. In amongst them, he could see the transponder codes of thousands of search and rescue craft. The crews of those craft were using life sign scanners, and listening carefully to every frequency in the vicinity of their craft. Hundreds of drones were swarming through passages, searching for sealed compartments in which survivors might remain.

Anakin knew that dozens of Jedi would be with the search and rescue teams. The Force was a powerful tool for search and rescue. They could take the place of heavy lifting equipment. They could find life signs even sensors would balk at. A single Jedi could often lift twelve tons of wreckage in a one G environment. In zero G, they could often shift ten times that amount of loose debris, held in place by marginal acceleration.

It was a reassuring sight. Even in a system that had faced an all-out engagement less than a fortnight before, these people were searching for every organic survivor. Even aboard a Star Destroyer destroyed under way, there would usually be survivors in sealed compartments.

Re-entry was fairly typical. Despite the aeons that had passed since the invention of spaceflight, craft entering an atmosphere were still often surrounded by a plasma sheath, unless they came in very slowly. Anakin rarely did. There was something atavistic about the glow of re-entry, the shuddering of the craft and the bloom of bright plasma outside the cockpit.

At about fifteen thousand feet, he merged into the high altitude traffic lanes. The diminutive size of his starfighter, which was just six metres long, eased the process. In his socket on the left wing, Artoo glanced around; occasionally screeching when his owner's driving came close to causing a mid-air collision.

The final few miles, once he reached the temple district, were less boring. Anakin jogged the starfighter around, taking the occasional shortcut to avoid the worst of the traffic. He could feel Ahsoka in the distance, almost back to her usual self, although there was a heaviness to her Force presence.

She and Shaak-Ti were waiting for him in the hangar bay when he made his landing.

He wasn't entirely surprised that Ahsoka was in a hoverchair. He could feel her joy at seeing him, but the hoverchair seemed to leave her despondent.

Stepping out of his starfighter, he waited while Artoo detached himself, before both of them headed across the hangar to the pair of togruta.

This time, Anakin didn't worry about propriety. He dropped down to his knees, wrapped an arm around Ahsoka's shoulders, and kissed her. There was a moment of hesitation, and then she responded, her own arms wrapping around his shoulders, and pulling him close, although not with anything like her usual strength. Her tongue infiltrated his mouth after a few intangible seconds, almost shyly.

Where her left hand pressed down, holding him close, he could feel the simple ring he'd made for her pressing into his left shoulder blade.

Neither of them could really think of any words to say. All of their talking was done with actions, in those first few moments.

Artoo, Anakin noticed, out of a mental corner, was taking advantage of the distraction to argue with the hoverchair's processor.

Reluctant to let go of Ahsoka, Anakin nonetheless broke away after a couple of minutes, crossing over to his starfighter again, and extracting both his kitbag and the smaller, indistinctly shaped canvas bag.

"What's in it?" She asked, curiously, as he slung his kitbag, colloquially known as a 'sea bag' over his shoulder, while keeping the canvas bag to hand.

"A present for the council." Anakin replied, with a grin.

"Okayyy..." Ahsoka muttered.

"I assume, Master Skywalker, that you will want to visit the council chambers immediately?" Shaak-Ti asked.

"I will, Master."

She led the way out of the hangar, having relinquished control of the hoverchair to Anakin. The human Jedi made great play of nearly tipping a furiously giggling Ahsoka out of the chair several times, as they made their way to the council chambers.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 _At least they saved me the effort of removing that Kaleesh savage from the face of the galaxy myself._ Darth Sidious, also known as Sheev Palpatine, mused, as he read the reports of the battle of Utapau. _Sadly, he didn't remove any Jedi for me, but we can't have everything, I suppose. The clones will take care of them soon enough._

Turning to his datapad, he called up the note from Krios, the assassin he'd hired in the hope of finishing off Ahsoka.

'Attention, Client.' It read. 'Please be advised that the cleaning job you contracted me for has not been completed, owing to a breach of contract. I was given to believe that I would be killing a corrupt individual. Instead, you attempted to arrange the murder on an individual who was not involved in any form of criminal behaviour. As such, I have provided full information about the contract to the Jedi Order.'

 _Damn the man._ Sidious thought. _I hired an assassin. Who then failed to fulfil his contract, although he's still emptied the numbered account I put the fee in. He was supposed to kill that force-be dammed togruta, not hand himself in and turn informant. If Skywalker finds out that I hired those Nikto fools, who, of course, told her who'd hired them, if my camera footage is uncorrupted..._

_I hope that it doesn't happen. Skywalker will make a most powerful apprentice._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin waited outside the Council Chambers until the entirety of the body of the High Council had assembled. One third of the members were physically present on Coruscant, if he included himself. The rest, including Yoda, were dispersed throughout the galaxy, in multiple warzones.

Once they had assembled, he stepped into the middle of the room, before opening the anonymous canvas bag, and rolling the contents along the floor, towards the chair occupied by Yoda's hologram.

The various Jedi looked slightly aghast at the sight of the decapitated head of General Grievous, rattling across the floor.

"My mission was successful, Masters." Anakin said. "General Grievous and the force he led to occupy Utapau are destroyed."

"Was there a reason for the trophy, Master Skywalker?" Mace Windu asked.

"Proof." Anakin replied.

Ahsoka had gone slightly goggle-eyed at the sight of the cyborg's head.

"Not enough, you feel your word to be?" Yoda asked.

Anakin replied with a glance at Ahsoka, before using the Force to gather the head, and reinsert the trophy into its bag.

Most of the council promptly began studying the inlaid floor of the chamber.

"Anakin... Ahsoka..." Mace said, after a couple of minutes. "I'm sorry. I've said it before, and I'll reiterate it again. I should have trusted you, and Ahsoka."

Ahsoka muttered something in mandolorian, along the lines of "Ka'ludr nahu'ya Sayri'uhuiyr" (1)

Anakin shot a glance at Ahsoka. He knew that her mandolorian vocabulary was mostly vulgar, given she'd picked most of it up from Torrent Company. "Snips, would you care to repeat that in basic?" He asked.

She stuck her tongue out at him, with a giggle.

"Anakin, do you have any other business at this time for us?"

"No, Masters."

Mace nodded at him and the holograms dissolved.

"I'm sure we can begrudge you a few days, Master Skywalker." Mace said.

Anakin bowed slightly, and left the council chambers, pushing Ahsoka ahead of him.

When they reached the quarters they shared, Anakin was somewhat surprised to find a note written on flimsiplast attached to the door. "You have been assigned quarters in keeping with your responsibilities, Master Skywalker." He read, looking at Ahsoka, who wasn't pretending not to know anything about it. (2) Turning over the sheet, he found a map on the back, which showed the location of his new quarters.

Shaking his head slightly, Anakin headed for the turbolift.

It deposited the pair thirty floors up, on a level where the outer wall served the temple as an intermediate roof, with shielded terraces beyond it.

Following the map, they found themselves standing outside a door within minutes.

Anakin didn't hesitate to hit the control to open the door, after a brief probe of the room. He didn't detect anyone inside, or anyone pretending not to be. He took the lead, pulling Ahsoka through backwards, with his lightsaber drawn, but not lit.

The room was empty of everything except furniture. It was also the size of a small starship's bridge. He realised that he was standing in a hallway, as there were doors to both sides, and the corridor widened into a larger reception room.

Three of the rooms turned out to be bedrooms, with single beds. A fourth had a hutt-sized bed in the centre, with fittings suggesting it was intended to be shared. Directly across from the master bedroom was a bathroom, which, for reasons Anakin felt sure that the budgetary accounts committee would enquire about, had been fitted with a hot tub that looked large enough for a Sando-aqua monster to fully submerge in.

The dining table, which was in the main reception area, had a small note on it.

"Master Skywalker. As I understand that you and Knight Tano are engaged, we were asked to provide rooms which were appropriate for you both. Due to a general lack of facilities designed for couples, we have assigned you both one of the family suites, which are intended for the use of guests and those under the protection of The Order. Given your friendship with Senator Amidala, and that prenatal screening indicates that both of her children are strong with the Force, we have provided facilities for child raising as well."

 _I wonder which storage closet they locked Master Tryri in while they stole her supplies._ Anakin thought. _I wouldn't have cared to be the point man on that operation. She has a way of reducing hardened Jedi to toddlers caught using the Force to raid the sweet jar. And how exactly does Temple Facilities Management know about the twins?_

Ahsoka had been looking around slightly while he read the notes.

"This is us, Skyguy?" She asked.

"This is us, Snips." He replied. "I think there is enough room."

Ahsoka grinned back at her fiancé, before he pushed her to the kitchen. There weren't going to be any thoughts where he was concerned about leaving her with the cooking and cleaning. Not if he valued his life.

Inside, there was a rack of pots and pans, hanging over a central counter, which was cut out on two sides for wine racks. The surfaces were made from wood rather than stone, looking, from the grain, to be wroshyr from Kashyyyk. The surrounding cabinets were fronted with a lighter wood, presumably alderaanian pine. The stove top had six plates, each with individual temperature controls. The large refrigerator had been stocked, when he checked, with fresh groceries. A small alcove contained the freezer, along with a number of shelves.

"They think we'll need all this?" Ahsoka asked, looking around.

"We probably will." Anakin replied. Unlike Ahsoka, he had some experience of food preparation, having been encouraged to learn the basics of cooking by Obi-Wan before the clone wars. Ahsoka, sadly, had either eaten in the canteen, if they were in the temple, or from ration packs while they were in the field.

"Skyguy... I need to tell you something..." Ahsoka said, after a moment.

"What is it?" Anakin asked.

"When... this happened..." she gestured at her body. "They said something; just when they were about to... kill... me." She might have been a seventeen year old Jedi Knight, but she was still seventeen when it came to her sense of mortality.

"What?" Anakin asked, almost pleadingly.

"They said that Darth Sidious sends his regards." Ahsoka whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are heading for the climax of Episode Three at a pace. I’m anticipating another two or three chapters on the current plot pathway, then starting a series of shorter stories featuring Anakin and Ahsoka, along with a couple of other characters I’m not going to talk about at this time. What I can say is that Luke and Leia will be living with Anakin and Ahsoka.
> 
> (1) I'm not going to translate this, except for a statement that she is doubting his honesty and insulting him.  
> (2) This is genuine. Ahsoka really didn’t have any idea what was going on.


	21. Anakin and Ahsoka renew their bond, before Anakin meets with the Chancellor

It was a while before either Jedi broke the silence.

"You're sure?" Anakin asked Ahsoka, gently.

Her response was to gently slap his hand. "I wouldn't have told you if I wasn’t."

Anakin smiled, before taking full control of the hoverchair, and starting to push Ahsoka back through their new dwelling. Able to feel exactly what he was planning, Ahsoka didn't attempt to override the controls.

In the hall, Artoo was busying himself with a haul of cases on a float-pallet. With a gentle smile, Anakin bent down. "Artoo, the bedroom is off-limits if the door is closed. That goes for the holocams as well."

"Bloep." The astromech replied.

Gently, Anakin patted him on the dome, before pushing Ahsoka into their brand new bedroom.

He made a gentlemanly act of lifting her out of the hoverchair, feeling carefully around her lower back, before laying his former padawan on the bed, and starting to methodically remove the various layers of Jedi robes she'd been dressed in.

When she tried to help, annoyed by the lack of real contact, Anakin pressed her arms back onto the bed, before holding them there with the Force, not applying any real pressure to them, but just enough that Ahsoka would have been fighting several gravities of pressure if she wanted to help Anakin undress her.

Once he'd finished, Ahsoka was wearing nothing but her decidedly risqué underwear, which seemed to owe more to metal than fabric, much to his surprise. She'd had several experiences of physical enslavement, none of which she'd enjoyed.

"It's astonishing what you can find in a catalogue." She joked, feeling her former master's shock at the clothing.

"Who gave it to you, Jabba?" Anakin replied, smiling.

"Padmé." Ahsoka said. "Apparently, you enjoy this sort of thing..."

Anakin felt as if his face was on fire. "I... she..."

Ahsoka giggled furiously, before Anakin looked down at her with a very evil grin. (1)

Wrapping bands of Force Energy around her wrists, Anakin pulled Ahsoka's arms away from her body, before imprisoning her feet in the same way.

Then, he extracted a toothbrush from his travel case, and began working the bristles in amongst her toes. With the Force for an ally, he was able to tell very easily that the hoots and screams were of pleasure, not agony.

He kept it up for five minutes, before stopping, looking down at her.

"Ah... that... Ahhh!" She gasped, as Anakin ran the toothbrush across the plane of her stomach.

Stepping away from the bed, Anakin stripped out of his own robes, before removing the togruta's metal undergarments, and thoroughly testing for nerve dysfunctions in the vicinity.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Well, Snips." Anakin said, teasingly. "I think we can reliably conclude that those nerves are working."

Ahsoka's eyes looked back into his with a look he hadn't seen on her face for months: utter contentment. She was sprawled next to her fiancé with an almost feline bonelessness, utterly relaxed, utterly vulnerable.

"I'm not sure." She replied. "It didn't feel as good as it did last time..."

"We can work on that." Anakin said, with a smile, although he didn't pull her closer despise the way she twisted her shoulders receptively.

"Skyguy?" She asked, as Anakin levered himself out of the bed, before heading out of the bedroom.

"I'm coming back, Snips." He replied. "Just getting some crisps. (2)"

Ahsoka lowered her head back to the bed, before hearing the sounds of cupboard rattling from the kitchen. Anakin clearly didn't mean a small bowl each, she judged.

When her lover returned, he was carrying a large tray, laden with a variety of snacks both could share. The first bowl she scented contained a mixture of scratching varieties, smelling of a combination of nerf and bantha based products, variously spiced. The second, which she investigated while still vigorously chewing her selection from the previous bowl, contained cultured protein slices, spiced with the esters from standard crisps.

Anakin had brought his own selection of human snacks as well. For Ahsoka, anything other than sampling would probably leave her doubled over as the cellulose worked through her system.

The bedroom wall featured a holovision, which Anakin fired up, setting it to twenty-four hour news. The news reports on the war had begun to take a decidedly more upbeat tone of recent months, as CIS forces were pushed back. Anakin was just glad that he no longer saw reports about the death of friends. The Jedi left alive after three years of conflict were the skilled, the lucky and the cunning. The rest had been removed from the Order by a Darwinian selection process, usually in combat.

"On Coruscant, the investigation into the attempted murder of Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano continues. Coruscant Security has no new leads, according to their latest press conference. It is believed that the attack was directed against the Jedi Order, by an as-yet unidentified group."

Anakin turned to Ahsoka, and gently took her hand.

“We’ll find who hired them, Snips.” Anakin said. “And when we do find who hired them, then I’ll take action on your behalf, if you aren’t well enough to help me do so. That’s a promise.”

“I hope to help.” She murmured, before her eyes gently slid shut, and she began to doze, her chest rising and falling in the steady rhythm of exhaustion.

Anakin sat watching her, reminding himself that this was what the world was really about: a moment of utter peace, in the company of one of the beings in the galaxy he wouldn’t trade for it.

Then his comlink, entangled in his discarded clothing, began to ring.

Summoning it, along with his tunic, Anakin pressed the accept call button, after checking the caller ID.

“Master Skywalker speaking.” He said.

“Anakin.” It was the Chancellor speaking. “I was told that you were back on Coruscant. How is Knight Tano?”

“She’s out of the medcenter.” Anakin replied. _And you don’t need to know what we were doing for the last hour._

“I hope that she is going to make a full recovery.”

“The medics are hopeful.” Anakin replied, neutrally. In previous encounters, the man hadn’t taken much of an interest in Ahsoka.

“Can you come over to my office?” Palpatine asked, expressing the actual reason for his holocall.

“I can.” Anakin replied. “Why?”

“I would like to hear your report about the combat on Utapau. There is something that I need to tell you, about the Jedi.”

“I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes.” Anakin said, before hanging up without waiting for the normal formalities. “Ahsoka.” It was the Master to Padawan command voice that he only used when he was being deadly serious, or the situation was extremely dangerous. “I want you to go to the Council, now. Tell them…” he broke off, not quite knowing exactly what to say or how to phrase it. “Tell them that Master Skywalker believes that the Supreme Chancellor… is not a friend of the Republic.” _I want to give the man a chance to explain. It may just be that he reads old legends, and doesn’t worry too much about where he finds them._ He wasn’t willing to voice the alternative in his own head.

“Aye aye.” Ahsoka replied, her own cadence picking up on the tone of her Master’s voice. It wasn’t the sarcastic way that she might have replied to him in other circumstances. She knew Anakin, as a hero, then a friend, her Jedi Master, and as a lover. If something… made him that serious, all of a sudden… it was usually separatist battleships dropping out of hyperspace, or a major battlefield emergency. “Master… May the Force be with you.” Anakin paused in the act of dressing, to acknowledge the sentiment.

“I’m going to come back, Snips.” He said, jokingly. The tone left her all the more nervous. It wasn’t the ‘twitting Ahsoka about the holonet idol she had a fifteen year old crush on’ tone. It was the ‘I am about to go over the top’ tone.

As Anakin step through the door, she saw him hang his lightsaber from his belt, where his hand could reach it in an instant, not one of the more open carry positions where the saber drew attention to its presence.

With trembling hands, she reached for the comlink on the bedside table.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

When Anakin arrived, the Chancellor was in session with a number of senators, including a visibly pregnant Padmé.

“I understand your reservations completely, Senator, and I assure you the appointment of Governors will in no way compete with the duties of the Senate.” He said, as Anakin stepped into the room.

“May I take it then, that there will be no further amendments to the Constitution?” Padmé asked.

“I want this terrible conflict to end as much as you do, My Lady, and when it does I guarantee an immediate return to democracy...” Palpatine replied, smoothly, although, Anakin noticed, without answering the question at all.

“You are pursuing a diplomatic solution to the war, then?” She asked.

“You must trust me to do the right things, Senator. That is why I am here.” Palpatine said.

“But surely…” One of the other senators asked.

“I have said I will do what is right, that should be enough for your... committee.” Palpatine almost spat, rounding on the man.

“On behalf of the "delegation of two thousand," I thank you, Chancellor.” Padmé said, clearly rubbing the small of her back. Anakin knew that something like minor discomfort wouldn’t normally affect her, but guessed she was more worried for the twins than she let on.

“I thank you for bringing this to my attention, Senator.” Palpatine  replied, smoothly.

As Padmé led the small delegation out of the room, she gave Anakin a look that suggested it was a good thing for the constitution that she wasn’t armed at the moment. He returned a nod, before the doors swung shut, and he was left alone with the chancellor.

“Their sincerity is to be admired, Anakin, although I sense there is more to their request than they are telling us.” He said, as if teaching from a lectern.

“What do you mean?” Anakin asked.

“They are not to be trusted.” Palpatine stated.

“Surely Senator Amidala can be trusted.” Anakin said.

“These are unstable times for the Republic, Anakin. Some see instability as an opportunity. Senator Amidala is hiding something. I can see it in her eyes.” _Like the identity of the father of her children_. Anakin thought.

“I'm sure you're mistaken.” Anakin said, fighting his urge to… react.

“I'm surprised your Jedi insights are not more sensitive to such things.”

“I simply don't sense betrayal in Senator Amidala.” Anakin replied.

Palpatine gave him a look that suggested ‘you do, but you would never admit it to yourself.’ “What happened on Utapau?” He asked, instead.

“We engaged General Grievous’s forces.” Anakin replied. “A… a lot of clones died winning the battle.”

“How did he die?” Palpatine asked. “At your hand?”

“Master Kenobi struck the final blow.” Anakin told him. “I duelled him by myself, and survived the fight thanks to the Force. Master Kenobi arrived, and we were able to defeat him with the aid of a distraction.”

“I see.” Palpatine replied. “It is upsetting to me to see that the Council doesn't seem to fully appreciate your talents. Don't you wonder why they wouldn't make you a Jedi Master for so long?”

“I wasn’t ready.” Anakin replied, woodenly. “I’m still not ready.”

“That is what they have convinced you of.” Palpatine replied. “They don't trust you, Anakin. They see your future. They know your power will be too strong to control. Anakin, you must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you. Let me help you to know the subtleties of the Force.”

He barely controlled the urge to draw his lightsaber and… use it, as Palpatine rose from his chair, taking the conversation into the hallway outside his office.

“How do you know the ways of the Force?” He asked, cautiously, one hand resting next to his lightsaber, and on the activation stud of the tiny recording device he was wearing. It had been a joke gift from Ahsoka, brought in a child’s ‘espionage’ shop.

“My mentor taught me everything about the Force . . . even the nature of the dark side.”

Anakin stopped in his tracks as if he’d run into a brick wall.

“You know the dark side?!?” He asked, in consternation, taking several steps back from the chancellor, as if preparing to duel him.

“Anakin, if one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the Force. Be careful of the Jedi, Anakin.” Palpatine said, as the two circled one another, like a pair of predators, both considering whether to pounce. “They fear you. In time they will destroy you. Let me train you.”

“I won't be a pawn in your political game. The Jedi are my family.” _And one of them… Force willing, will be my wife._ Anakin said.

“Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your children from certain death.”

“What did you say?” Anakin asked.

“Use my knowledge, I beg you…” Palpatine said, before Anakin’s lightsaber ignited, cutting off the rest of the sentence.

“You're… the Sith Lord!” Anakin spat, his lightsaber going to the chancellor’s throat. “You’re… Darth Sidious…!”

“I know what has been troubling you . . . Listen to me. Don't continue to be a pawn of the Jedi Council! Ever since I've known you, you've been searching for a life greater than that of an ordinary Jedi . . . a life of significance, of conscience.” Palpatine said, searching for hooks to grab onto, to twist Anakin’s mind.

“You're wrong!” Anakin said.

“Are you going to kill me?” the Chancellor asked, almost casually. Anakin could feel him tensing, like a nexu about to spring.

He didn’t respond verbally. Instead, he flicked his wrist.

Palpatine nearly made it to his lightsaber in time to deflect the stroke. His hand brushed the phrik hilt…

Then his head landed on the floor.

“Yes.” Anakin replied, talking to the wide-eyed head on the floor. “I am.” Consciousness was beginning to fade from the former chancellor’s eyes as he lifted the head. “That was for Ahsoka, you son of a bitch.”

Then twelve Jedi knights, along with four masters, including Mace Windu, Yoda and Shaak-Ti, burst into the room, lightsabers drawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was about the third scene I planned for this story, when I was first brainstorming ideas after writing the first couple of chapters. I wanted to make sure I got the execution (in both senses of the word) perfect before I published it. 
> 
> (1) This was the point at which I discovered that preventing a breach was impossible, as Anakin was going to do that no matter what I did.  
> (2) For my American readers, this is the same as chips, in UK English. In the UK, chips are what American English knows as fries, and come in a variety of sizes, with fries reserved for thin versions such as those served by fast food franchises.


	22. Aftermath

Anakin glanced around, stunned by the volume and speed of the response. Behind the force of Jedi, he could see the brightly painted armour of clone commandos, and even what looked like a small number of ARC troopers.

"Master Skywalker?" Yoda asked, from the front rank. "Here what happened did?"

"The Chancellor... attempted... to recruit me." Anakin said. "He… was… the Sith Lord."

"He admitted it?" Mace asked.

"All but. He said he knew the Dark Side of the Force." Anakin replied. "I recorded him."

"Anakin..." Mace said, gently. "He was too dangerous to take alive." Carefully, the veteran master lifted away the outer layer of the chancellor's robe, where one of his hands rested near a pocket. Underneath, Anakin saw the unmistakable cylinder of a lightsaber hilt. "If you'd hesitated, or refused to back him... he'd have used this."

"Why did you come here?" Anakin asked.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Master Shaak-Ti?" Ahsoka asked.

"Ahsoka?" Shaak-Ti sounded slightly surprised. "I'd have thought you and Anakin would still be reconnecting." She said it with a faint smile.

"We were." She replied, having little doubt about what was meant by the euphemism, even though weeks before, she’d have been baffled. If she had figured it out before having been seriously involved with someone, she’d have been left with montrals that felt like they were about to spontaneously combust. "The Chancellor called him on his comlink. I didn't hear what was said, but he looked like he'd seen a Force Ghost afterwards. Then... he made sure he could reach his lightsaber instantly, and told me to call you, or another member of the Council, and tell you that he thought Chancellor Palpatine was an enemy of the Republic."

"He... said that about the chancellor?" Shaak-Ti asked.

"Yes." Ahsoka replied.

"Thank you." Shaak-Ti said. "Master Windu?" She called. Ahsoka realised that the older togruta was in an annex off the main council chamber. "Condition Janus." She called.

Ahsoka knew a lot of the Jedi Order contingency codes. Condition Mynock meant: 'we have reporters outside the main entrance. Use a side door, or come in through the hangar.' Condition Scutum meant: 'the temple is under attack, but we are holding them off.' Condition Demeter meant: 'My Padawan has been kidnapped.' She'd heard Anakin cancelling that one a lot.

Condition Janus, though, was new to her.

"You've gotta be kidding!" Mace shot back. "Janus? Do we have proof of that?"

"Master Skywalker..."

"He thinks... well... sithspit." Mace said, moving into the holocomm's pickup range. "Ahsoka, he thinks this?"

"He went to see the chancellor a few minutes ago, prepared for a fight."

"He's planning to try and arrest him?" Mace asked.

"I think so..." Ahsoka stated. She really hoped that her Master wasn’t planning the alternative solution.

"Ahsoka, you know that you are in no fit state to do this. I want your word that you'll stay away."

Ahsoka responded with a simple gesture. She raised her left hand to the pickup.

Mace blinked slightly when he saw the ring.

"I won't try and help, Master Windu." She said. "And I'll stay out of the immediate vicinity until you say it's safe. But I'm not going to sit here waiting."

Mace just looked at her, for a second. “I can’t see the harm in that, then.” He chuckled. Ahsoka killed the connection, before using the Force to summon her clothes and help her clamber into them.

A few minutes later, two senior padawans her own age arrived, before assisting her into her hoverchair, supporting various sections of her body in ways that suggested a great deal of medical training. Once she had been loaded up, they rushed her to a turbolift at the trot.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

There was a flutter of activity, before several clones stood aside, allowing Ahsoka through. Anakin didn't quite know how to react to her appearance. When she saw the Chancellor's remains, now being packed into a standard GAR bodybag, she blinked.

"He..."

"Him." Anakin confirmed. "He did that to you."

Mace, off to one side, was on his comlink. "... Yes, you need to cancel the impeachment session." He said, before pausing. "No, it won't be a state funeral. Do we have a waste incinerator handy?"

Anakin left him to get on with the process of organising the transfer of power, for the more important business of snuggling with Ahsoka. After a few moments, they followed the rest of the Jedi into an antechamber

"...We can't give him the damned job..." Mace said. "I agree that it would be a suitable punishment for this stunt, but he doesn't have the experience, and I can barely imagine what he'd do if his pizza order was late."

Ahsoka began spluttering with laughter at the look on Anakin's face.

"I'm not going to have any members of the Order in the upper echelons of government." Mace said. "We have different concerns. Ok, I suppose you can have the accountancy team, and the revenue inspectors."

Anakin couldn't entirely keep a straight face as he heard a Jedi Master attempting to offload the Jedi in charge of the prevention of purchase of anything unsuitable. As that usually included buzzweed, high performance sports airspeeders and scatterguns, it left him nonplussed, although he accepted that trying to put a ATT on his Jedi credit chip had been what is technically described as a piss-take. And that he had been three sheets, a mizzen topgallant and a flying jib to the wind when he put in the order.

It now occupied a spare hangar bay at the temple.

Ahsoka had been helping him retrofit a proper sound system and a system-level racing repulsorlift. They were also replacing the interior fittings with the contents of a luxury yacht with a similar sized main deck. He’d recovered the yacht from pirates and claimed it as salvage. They were also fitting a caf dispenser that hadn't been stolen from Galbucks, despite it carrying their livery, and having scars suggesting it had been lightsabered off of a wall. 

They'd threatened to check the caf machine on the CSF systems when he tried to get hold of a hyperdrive ring.

“Yeah, and we’ll let you have a whole bunch of Padawans as well.” He said. “Internships for as many as we can send you, yeah?”

Anakin shook his head, before a small squad of CSF patrollers stepped into the room, looking out of place among the Jedi and clone Special Forces troops.

“Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker?” The leading officer asked.

Anakin nodded at him.

“It is my duty to inform you that you are under arrest for the murder of Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything that you do say may be taken down and given in evidence against you.” The officer said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Somewhat shorter than I originally planned, but this was where the story ended up going. This may or may not be the last update until May, owing to the fact that I am revising for my end-of-year exams.


	23. The Trial of Anakin Skywalker

Ahsoka looked up at the CSF officers as they read Anakin his rights, and then at her fiancé, who was standing there, looking vaguely surprised.

“Why?” Ahsoka asked them. “He was a Sith!”

“Ma’am, we don’t know that yet. What we currently know is that a Jedi master who was apparently a close friend of the deceased visited him in his office, and there was some sort of confrontation, which ended in the Jedi Master decapitating the head of state of the Galactic Republic.” She was told.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin stood there, his mind spinning, and one hand resting on his hip. Almost imperceptibly, his hand touched his lightsaber hilt, and he saw…

Himself, cutting down the patrollers…

The temple on fire, surrounded by a heaving mob of people…

The few surviving Jedi fleeing, pursued by the republic fleet…

Ahsoka, dead in their quarters, his own body in front of her…

“Ahsoka.” Anakin said. “Let them.”

“Why?” Ahsoka asked.

“Because we need to be accountable. I killed a friend, for reasons I believe to have been fully justified, but I need to be held accountable for it. For the sake of the Republic.” Keeping his eyes on Ahsoka, meeting her gaze, Anakin held out his hands to be secured.

Ahsoka didn’t stop looking after her fiancé until the turbolift doors closed behind him, and the lift departed.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was a while, almost five whole years, in fact, since Anakin had last been through the CSF booking-in procedure.

To his surprise, the desk sergeant recognised him.

“Anakin Skywalker.” She said. “What have you done this time?”

“He decapitated the supreme chancellor, Sarge.” One of the officers standing behind the Jedi said. “There may be some mitigating circumstances.”

“Well, that’s a step up.” She said, before calling up the form.

“Name?” she asked, more for procedure than anything else.

“Anakin Skywalker.”

“Planet of origin?”

“Tatooine.”

The details were typed in, and brought up the rest of the required details.

“Offence?”

“Murder.” One of the patrollers replied.

It was entered.

They did the usual medical questionnaire. Anakin noted an allergy to ‘Bantha Fodder’ which was entered with a slight smile.

“Do you want a lawyer?”

“Yes.” Anakin said.

After a couple of additional questions, he was led to a cell, and the ray shield securing the entrance sprang to life once he was inside.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Cyber-security is largely based on access control. As such, the supreme chancellor had designed the security on his personal hardware to be highly resistant to any attempt to access the data inside.

What almost no security hardware or software is designed to resist, though, is the confiscation of the device on which it is installed and the attachment of the storage media to specialised hardware.

It took the hacking division of the Jedi sentinels, observed and filmed at all times by their counterparts from the CSF cybercrime unit, approximately three days to break into Palpatine’s central storage drive. Inside of the drive, they found a number of files, with simple alpha-numeric identifiers.

The first file was named Order 66.

Ten minutes after it was opened, the Jedi Council convened.

“Masters.” The lead slicer said, looking slightly nervous at having been prised out of his cubby. “We’ve found something that you really ought to know. The clones have been hard-coded with an order to exterminate the entire Jedi order if they are given a certain command by the supreme chancellor.”

“Hard coded?” Obi-Wan said. “Don’t you mean trained?”

“They’ve been fitted with what I believe to be called an inhibitor chip, Master Kenobi.” The slicer explained. “Once it activates, they have literally no choice whatsoever but to gun down any Jedi they come across.”

“Kriff.”

“That was pretty much my reaction, Master Kenobi.”

“Is there a solution, Knight Mckinnon?”

“In the short term, preventing the appointment of a new Supreme Commander. In the long term, every single clone in the Grand Army will need to undergo surgery to remove the chip.”

“Force.” Obi-Wan muttered, before continuing more loudly. “Master Tiplar’s death may not have been an accident, then.”

“Master Kenobi, I believe that it was an accident, and that the clone trooper who killed her,” he referred to his datapad. “CT-5385, was not acting of his own volition. In all likelihood, his chip activated due to an error or glitch, and he opened fire while in a delusional state.”

“Do we need to withdraw Jedi from integration with clone forces?”

“It’s unnecessary, master Kenobi.” Mckinnon said, looking briefly down at his datapad. “There is a very low probability of another malfunction occurring at an individual level, and a systemic malfunction is even less likely.”

“What about deliberate activation?” Mace Windu asked. “Is that a possibility?”

“I don’t know.”

“Masters, I think we need to err on the side of caution here.” Mace said. “Purely on a temporary basis, I propose to remove all Jedi from proximity to clone troops, and to safe havens.”

“Concur, I do.” Yoda said, from his hut on Kashyyyk. “High, the risk to the Jedi is. Separate ourselves from the clones; we must, until more we know.”

Mace almost instantly stood up and moved to a transmitter alcove, before typing in an alphanumeric code known only to the high council. Once the transmitter showed it was active, he began speaking. “This is Master Windu. All Jedi are to expedite any operations involving clones, and then place their forces under the nearest non-Jedi Commander and maintain a separation of at least four light-seconds between themselves and clone forces until this order is rescinded. Authorisation code Baker Papa Alpha Hotel Coruscant eight seven four sixteen.”

Then he turned back to the assembled council members.

“We’ve got a decision of our own: evacuate the temple, or fortify it?”

“Where could we actually go, Master Windu?” Ki-Adi-Mundi asked, over the holocommunicator built into his chair. “Tython is the only planet that we use that isn’t well known, and the Dark Side is strong there.”

“A proposal, I have.” Yoda broke in. “The initiates a camping holiday, we could give. Little known, the Dagobah system is. There, we could hide.”

“Dagobah?”

“Heard of the planet, very few have. Uninhabited, it is. Pure in the force, it is as well.”

“What about the wildlife?” Mace asked, sceptically.

“A threat to a Jedi, nothing there is. Find many pets, the initiates will.”

“That was what I was afraid of.” Mace muttered.

“Good for young Jedi, having a pet to care for is.”

“Master Yoda, there was another matter.” McKinnon interjected.

“The matter, what is?” Yoda asked.

“Have you ever heard of the Far Outsiders?”

“I have.” Obi-Wan admitted. “While Anakin was still my padawan, we were dispatched to investigate the disappearance of a Jedi known as Vergere. She’d vanished from a supposedly living and mobile planet called Zonama Sekot. The locals there claimed to have been attacked by these ‘Far Outsiders.’ There was damage from what appeared to be an orbital bombardment on the surface, although whatever weapon was used is not commonly used in our galaxy.”

“What do you mean, Master Kenobi?”

“I mean that it is very possible that the Far Outsiders are a hostile, extragalactic species.”

“That is what the Chancellor believed, Master Kenobi.” McKinnon confirmed. “He thought that the Far Outsiders, possibly also known as the Yuuzhan Vong, are coming in force.”

“They, how powerful are?” Yoda asked. “There, how many of them are?”

“We don’t know, Master Yoda.” McKinnon responded. “Possibly billions and a rough match for our own level of power.”

The council just sat there, looking at each other, remembering the war they had just spent three years fighting.

“We need a plan.”

Then the High Council of the Jedi Order began one of the most important planning sessions in the twenty-five millennia the order had existed for.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Coruscant, seven days after the death of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine.

The system primary was shining as Anakin Skywalker, wearing a prison uniform, was led into the senate tower. The Jedi master was secured with stun-cuffs, fastened around both his wrists and his ankles. Everyone in the galaxy, more or less, knew that he was being polite by leaving the manacles on.

 

Ahsoka sat in the public gallery as her fiancé was led into the court chamber, with Obi-Wan and Shaak-Ti seated either side of her. As he passed them, Anakin looked up, and gave Ahsoka a smile, before he was led into the dock. She remembered all too well what it was like to face trial inside this room. Next to the three Jedi, Senator Amidala sat with Bail Organa, both wearing their formal robes. Padmé, although dressed formally, was not costumed to the same extent as she would have been during her reign on Naboo.

Perhaps two minutes later, a bell chimed, and one of the clerks stood up.

“All rise for Lord Speaker Mas Amedda.” He said, prompting a rattle as all of the beings in the senate chamber rose to their feet. The Chagrian looked down at the Jedi Master, and began speaking.

“Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker, you are charged with the assassination of Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine in the bounds of the Senate. How do you plead?”

“Not Guilty, on the grounds that the chancellor was a traitor to the Republic.” Anakin replied, standing up, and looking the Chagrian in the eyes.

The plea was entered into the book, and the trial formally began.

“Members of the Court, Lord Speaker, the prosecution will attempt to prove that Anakin Skywalker, Master in the Jedi Order, did, on Zhellday the 3rd of this month, fatally behead Sheev Palpatine, and that he travelled to their meeting armed.”

The lawyer paused for a second, before entering into his case.

Unsurprisingly, the prosecution did not need too long to outline their case. They had footage of Anakin meeting with the chancellor, and them departing into the corridor in which the chancellor had died. They had dozens of witness statements from assorted clones who’d followed the arrest team into the room, and seen Anakin standing over a beheaded chancellor with a lit lightsaber, holding the man’s head by the hair. They had forensics showing that the chancellor had been decapitated by a lightsaber.

Then Anakin’s defence took the stand.

“Members of the court, Lord Speaker, the defence will attempt to prove that at the time of his death, Sheev Palpatine was acting against the interests of the republic, and that Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker killed him in defence of the Jedi Order and the Republic.”

Anakin was the first witness the defence called to the stand.

“Master Skywalker, can you outline for the court all of your actions in the period leading up to the death of Sheev Palpatine?”

“I was with my Fiancée, Ahsoka Tano, at the temple, when I received a holocall from the Chancellor asking me to come to his office. I visited him there, and witnessed the tail end of a meeting between the Chancellor and a small group of senators, of whom I only recognised senator Amidala. After his meeting concluded, the chancellor began to discuss the Jedi and the Force with me, ultimately attempting to recruit me for the Sith. I could feel his reaction when I asked him if he was the Sith Lord, although he didn’t confirm it verbally. I then drew my lightsaber as he started to plead with me to help him destroy the Jedi order. At this point, I concluded that I had two choices: agree to do so, or die, so I decapitated him while he was in the act of reaching for his own lightsaber.”

“I have no more questions, my Lord.” Anakin’s lawyer said.

“Did you attend that meeting with the intention of killing the chancellor?” The barrister for the prosecution asked.

“No.” Anakin replied. “He was my friend.”

“But you admit decapitating him?”

“I admit killing a Sith Lord in self-defence.” Anakin replied. “I had already done so once this year.”

“That was Count Dooku, an avowed enemy of the republic?” The barrister asked.

“It was.” Anakin replied.

“And you claim that the victim was also a ‘Sith Lord’?”

“I do.” Anakin replied.

“Despite his long history of public service?”

“The Sith are expert infiltrators and deceivers.” Anakin said. “In that time, he was only working towards one goal, if he was a sith.”

“No more Questions, my Lord.” The prosecuting barrister replied. It was probably the first time in his career that a suspect on the witness stand had willingly admitted the murder of a victim, although his defence seemed to be that it was self-defence and in the defence of others.”

“The Defence calls Jedi Knight McKinnon.” Anakin’s lawyer said.

Once the Jedi slicer was on the stand, and had been sworn in, Anakin watched from the dock as he laid out his evidence.

“I was given the data-storage device identified as Exhibit five by Jedi Master Kenobi, in the presence of a team from the Coruscant Security Force, who had travelled with the data-storage device and maintained actual control over it during my accessing of the device.” McKinnon said. “It took me three days to gain access to the data, which was secured behind three separate layers of encryption, each to the same standard as would be expected from government hardware containing Top Secret military operation information.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Very.”

Once you’d gained access, what did you find?”

“I found enough data to convict the chancellor of High Treason.” McKinnon replied, without blinking. “There were copies of orders sent to republic forces, along with orders sent to an individual believed to have been Count Dooku, and another series of orders sent to an individual believed to have been General Grievous.”

“Do we have any way of verifying who these orders were sent to?” Anakin’s lawyer asked.

“Yes. I sent a test message to one of the addresses, and the message was delivered aboard the Invisible Hand, according to item seventy-five.”

“I have no more questions, My Lord.” Anakin’s lawyer said.

The prosecution tried, anway.

“Is there any way that the data-storage device you were given have been substituted?”

“I don’t know.” McKinnon said.

“If it had been substituted, what would you have expected?”

“I would have expected very little encryption, and extremely damaging material.”

“Instead of extreme levels of security?”

“Yes.”

The lawyer asked a few more questions, before the trial continued, and Ahsoka was called to the stand.

“Jedi Knight Tano, where were you on the day of the Chancellor’s death?”

“I was in the quarters assigned to Anakin and me.” Ashoka replied.

“Were you together during that time?”

Ahsoka’s montrals flushed slightly and her lekku twitched furiously for a few moments.

“We were in the same b…room.” She said.

The lawyer moved swiftly away from those topics.

“Were you present when Master Skywalker received a holocall from the chancellor?”

“Yes.” Ahsoka replied.

“What happened?”

“He answered the com, they talked, and then he put down his comlink looking like he’d seen a Force-Ghost.”

“Did he say anything to you?”

“He told me to tell the council that he thought the Chancellor was not a friend of the Republic, then left. I remember him adjusting his lightsaber so it would be easier to reach.”

“What did you do?”

“I called the council, and they went straight to the senate, and brought me along.”

“What did you find when you got there?”

“I saw Sk… Anakin standing over the body of the Chancellor.”

“I have no further questions, My Lord.”

The prosecution lawyer stood up with the sort of look Ahsoka normally associated with sludgers following her and Anakin down the street when they were on Coruscant.

“Knight Tano. Congratulations on your engagement.” The man said. “I’m not aware that the Jedi order normally permits its members to marry. Why are you getting married to Master Skywalker?”

“Because I love him.” Ahsoka replied, resisting the urge to break out in mandalorian.

“When did your relationship start?”

“Kriff off.” Ahsoka replied.

“Were you past the age of consent?”

“Just… go Kriff yourself!” Ahsoka replied.

Mas Amedda just sat there, smiling.

“So it was before it was legal for Master Skywalker to have sexual intercourse with you?” the prosecutor asked.

“NO!” Ahsoka blurted. “This is nothing to do with the chancellor!”

“I’m just establishing some facts.” The lawyer said. “Your honour, please direct the witness to answer the question.”

“Knight Tano, you will answer the question. Were you legally past the age of consent in the galactic republic the first time you and Master Skywalker had sexual intercourse, yes or no?”

“Yes.” Ahsoka replied, her lekku fluttering furiously.

“When you were assigned to Master Skywalker, was he involved with anyone?”

“Yes.” Ahsoka replied.

“Who?”

“It’s none of your business who!” Ahsoka yelled.

Mas Amedda didn’t force her to answer the question.

A further few questions attempted to sexually slander both Anakin and Ahsoka, but finally, Ahsoka was allowed off of the stand.

The next few witnesses didn’t add anything material to the case, and Mas Amedda was left to make his decision.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 _I’ve got no choice._ Mas Amedda thought to himself, looking at the packed courtroom. _I could convict him, of course, and sentence him to death, but I would face impeachment if I did so, and he would be acquitted in moments by my replacement. Damn him. And damn that togruta of his as well._

“Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker, this court finds that you killed Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine in defence of the republic and of democracy, and therefore finds you Not Guilty of his murder or of the lesser charge of manslaughter.” _And may you be damned forever for forcing me to fail my friend. According to my sources, even using my authority to issue Order 66 would accomplish little to end the damned Jedi Order._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin just stood, looking into the public gallery, and directly into Ahsoka’s face, as she heard the same words he’d just heard. Then she just smiled, and grinned mischievously at her master.

The stun-cuffs were struck off, and he crossed to her, wrapping his arms around the togruta, and just kissed her. He didn’t care, in that moment that he was doing so in front of virtually the entire galaxy.

They separated when they ran out of oxygen, and Anakin carried Ahsoka through the senate, cradled close. When he reached the landing bay, he placed her, with ceremony, in the front passenger seat of his speeder. Once Ahsoka was seated, and Anakin had got into the driver’s seat ,they departed. The pair were heading for a nearby restaurant, known for a combination of discretion, security and excellent food.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“Target has departed the senate.” RC-1138, also known as Boss, said, into his helmet comm. “We are following.”

Trailing a few vehicles behind the targeted speeder, in an anonymous beige speeder van, marked up for a delivery service, the three members of delta squad, along with Darman and Niner, followed the speeder to its destination, and when it landed, they struck.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Mas Amedda was humming to himself as he disembarked, toying with a small, portable holocommunicator, that would allow him to issue authenticated orders at any time to the Grand Army of the Republic. He again toyed with the idea of issuing Order 66, just to hurt the Jedi. Overhead, he could hear another speeder, that sounded like it was heading into the enclosed garage on the level above him.

Then a stun grenade went off two feet in front of him, and everything went white.

While he was trying to focus his eyes and regain his balance, he was overborne by a pair of humanoids in what felt like clone commando armour, and his face smashed into the floor.

“Acting Supreme Chancellor Mas Amedda, I am arresting you in the name of the Galactic Republic. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything that you do say may be given in evidence.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

RC-1138 stood up, leaving Scorch to restrain Mas Amedda on the floor, while the police speeder-van that had been parked up two hundred levels below on a pedway lifted, and cruised up.

The chagrian was thrown inside, and taken away.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was dark in the area around the Jedi Temple when the autopilot landed Anakin’s speeder on the roof of the temple. Anakin got out of the speeder, lifted Ahsoka out, and just stood there for a moment, looking at the sky. The cool breeze wafted around them, and Anakin kissed Ahsoka, holding her close, before heading for the turbolift.

Once the doors had closed, they didn’t really break the kiss over the forty second journey.

Once they’d crossed the threshold of their apartment, Anakin carried his Fiancée into their bedroom, and they quickly lost themselves in each other’s Force auras.

 

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

 

Assassin unit B902 ran the scanner over the apartment in the senate district for a second time. Through the window, the droid could detect the life-signs of two beings, one on guard outside the turbolift leading into the apartment, and one in the main bed, with a higher than usual signature from its abdomen.

_Target=Senator_Amidala_

_Target_Located_Yes_No=Yes_

_Target_Located_in_main_bedroom._

_Initiate_protocol_5_

Working carefully, the assassin droid cut a hole in the projectile resistant transparisteel window leading into the main reception room, and jetted through, using the repulsorpack it had used to approach the apartment window. It paused, waiting for any response from the figure on guard, before crossing, stealth field active, into the bedroom, blaster drawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I have been writing this, a jury has been deliberating in a place called Warrington. Yesterday, they reached the verdict that the 96 Liverpool Football club fans, 78 of whom were under 30, who died twenty-seven years ago in the Hillsborough stadium disaster were unlawfully killed, citing Police Negligence and failures by the local ambulance service as the cause of their deaths, in stark contrast to claims by police that the fans were responsible. Had it not been for the families of those who died, they would never have had justice for the 96.


	24. 'Once you start down the dark path...'

When his pillow vibrated slightly, Typho instantly woke up. He’d trained that ability when Padmé first moved into the senate apartment complex, over a period of weeks.  Padmé had agreed to the use of the various handmaidens she’d brought with her for the purpose. The handmaidens had been both for security and to allow her not to have to attend an endless stream of charity dinners. Typho had used them to test his security perimeter, and had got them to fly assorted speeders past the window at night. Within two months, he’d been able to come awake instantly.

 

With a series of eye movements, Typho called up the tiny holographic display built into his pillow, coloured a dark red to preserve his night vision. On it, he could see what looked suspiciously like a CIS assassin droid hovering outside the room using a repulsorpack. The small, but extremely high resolution camera also showed the droid scanning the apartment using a small device.

 

“Authorisation Typho Bravo Alpha Niner.” Typho said, speaking to a tiny, highly sensitive speaker mounted above the senator’s bed. Padmé was sleeping in a zero-gravity tube in what was normally the guard position outside the elevator. The code caused a hydraulically moderated set of transparisteel panels to drop down silently around her, creating an airtight seal. It wouldn’t stop high explosives, but anything short of that would be largely kept out. He twitched slightly at the nearly inaudible whine of the separate ventilation system kicking in. The fan was taking air from a duct that was supposed to supply a meeting room and pumping it through the senator’s panic chamber.

 

With a smile, he waited for the droid to start cutting through the window, triggering a second alarm in the process. Once the cut was underway, he reached under his pillow and extracted a simple weapon, invented well before the era of space travel. About a foot long, with two durasteel barrels, the slugthrower contained a pair of duraplast cartridges containing chemical propellant and two ounces of duranium pellets. He just rested it on the bed, under the covers, and waited, watching everything on his screen.

 

When the CIS droid opened the door, it stepped through, blaster raised. As if he was turning over, slightly disturbed by the air current, Typho raised the shotgun and pulled the trigger.

 

He was pretty certain he’d broken his wrist as the droid flew backwards, and reached under his pillow for his carbine. It had enough stopping power for the job, and could be fired like an oversized pistol if he had to.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The massive blast of noise dragged Senator Padmé Amidala awake far faster than she normally woke up. For a second, she thought a speeder had crashed into the side of the building. Then she realised that the security panels had been closed around her ‘bed’. Her hand dipped into a pocket, and she waited for something to happen.

 

Perhaps a minute after she woke up, they retracted. “Typho?” she called.

 

“I’m here, milady.” Her bodyguard replied. “Someone sent you a present.”

“I’m glad your security precautions worked.” She replied, with a bit of a smile. “I take it there wasn’t a return address?”

“Not on the packaging.” Typho replied. “I turned it inside out.”

She smiled slightly once the sign and countersign routine had finished, and stepped out of the pod, heading for the guest bedroom. She took the M-6 ‘Rancor’ she’d armed herself with with her.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka had known for quite a while that ‘basic.exe’ didn’t run in Anakin Skywalker’s head until after his morning cup of caf. Prior to his consumption of the stimulant, he operated on grunts.

At least, that had been the norm before they became lovers. Now they were in a relationship, she found that he was very expressive prior to his first cup of caf. She growled slightly as his hands found… _oh… yes… that spot. Just there, Master._

“I thought I was marrying a togruta, not a Cathar.” Anakin twitted her, before running a finger down the line of her spinal column, feeling the smooth muscle on either side.

She just wrapped her arms around him in response, as his hands moved down from her torso, and they began the next round of ‘physiotherapy’.

Afterwards, both of them lay on top of the covers, pleasantly exhausted. Using the force, Anakin keyed on the holo, which was set, almost inevitably, to the galactic continuous news broadcast from the GBC.

“…On Coruscant, an assassination attempt on Senator Padmé Amidala was foiled by the actions of her bodyguard early this morning. Although it is reported that her bodyguard suffered a broken arm, the attempt was foiled…”

Ahsoka suddenly cringed as one of the bedside lamps exploded, then the other. A few seconds later, a little shaving mirror on the windowsill suddenly shattered.

“Skyguy!” She gasped.

Her master didn’t even look around.

Ahsoka didn’t remember feeling this much anger from anyone ever. “Sky...guy…?” she asked again, more hesitantly.

It was perhaps a minute before Anakin responded. “It’s ok, Snips.” He said, placing an arm around her shoulders, and just holding her, turning his face away just far enough that she couldn’t see what he’d seen in the mirror on the windowsill.

Eventually, he felt able to look into her eyes again. When Ahsoka didn’t tense, he relaxed, and just stayed there for a while, trying to draw the peace and calm of that moment into himself.

 

Eventually, it was time for caf, Ahsoka’s first squash of the day, and some actual physio exercises, aimed at preventing Ahsoka losing the muscle tone in her legs from being nearly unable to use them. She didn’t object at all, as Anakin wasn’t always entirely bothered about if he was putting his hands in the therapeutically optimal positions or not. She wanted to be able to run again. And, regardless of where his hands were, he allowed her to do her excercises.

 

Anakin had just sat her at the table for lunch when the holocomm chimed. He was in the process of untangling the oversized bib he’d found from somewhere from his upper body. He’d attempted to put it around Ahsoka’s neck, and ended up with it around his.

 

“Master Skywalker speaking,” he said. “Who am I talking to?”

“Master Skywalker, new intelligence we have received.” Yoda said. “The separatist high command, located we have. Hiding on Mustafar, they are.”

Ahsoka felt a whole wave of emotions run through her master. Satisfaction, relief, anger and something else all warred for a few seconds.

“Are we taking action?” he asked.

“We are, Master Skywalker.” Yoda replied. “The 501st, we have dispatched. Bring them to trial, their orders are.”

“Who is currently in command or the Grand Army?” Anakin asked.

“I am.” Yoda told him. “Devolved to me as grand master, command did.”

Anakin relaxed. “I want to go to Mustafar.”

“Wise, would it be, Master Skywalker?” Yoda asked. “An attempt on the life of your children, was last night made. Cloud your judgement, anger will.”

“How do you know about them?” Anakin demanded. “Have you been spying on me?”

“Spying, we have not been, young Skywalker.” Yoda said. “Crossed my desk, it did. Your relationship with the senator a secret was not. Her pregnancy, and the midichlorian count of her children, makes a simple conclusion your fatherhood.”

“I want to raise them myself.” Anakin said.

“An interesting experiment, it will be.” Yoda replied. “Young Jedi being raised by their biological father. About the outcome, most curious I am.”

Anakin didn’t respond for a few seconds. “I’m curious about raising my own children too, Master.” He replied.

“Knight Tano, how is?” Yoda asked.

“Feeling better.” Anakin said. “And enjoying her physio.”

“That what they are calling it now, is it?” Yoda asked, with a surprising twinkle in his eye.

Anakin went a bit red. “I’ll depart for Mustafar as soon as I can, Master.”

Yoda ended the call with what Anakin felt sure was a wink.

“You’re leaving so soon?” Ahsoka asked, looking down heartened. She’d only just got her Skyguy back from prison, and before that she’d been in a coma or his Padawan.

“I need to end this war. Once and for all. Before anyone else I care about gets hurt.” Anakin told her. “Every time I think everyone I love is safe, they end up in danger. And that means I need to stop anyone from the Trade Federation escaping.”

Ahsoka just sat there.

“I’m going to make sure that none of them can hurt you ever again.” He told her, before collecting his flight bag and heading for the hangar.

It took Ahsoka about thirty seconds to levitate herself across to the holocomm mounted on the wall, and another five to dial Obi-Wan’s code.

“Master Kenobi speaking.” The veteran Jedi master replied after perhaps thirty seconds of dialing tone. He sounded more than slightly annoyed and out of breath.

“Master, it’s Ahsoka.” She said. “Anakin has just gone off to Mustafar.”

“Mustafar?” Obi-Wan asked. “Why?”

“They’ve located what is left of CIS command.” Ahsoka explained. “And…”

“He intends to do something about them…” Obi-Wan finished for her. “Something probably unpleasant.”

“Yes.” Ahsoka almost sobbed.

“Ahsoka, you did the right thing comming me.” Obi-Wan said. “Shai, contact Master Yoda. Tell him Master Skywalker is suspected Code Vornskr.”

Ahsoka could hear Shaak-Ti in the background passing the message on.

“The first thing we’re going to do is go down to Galactic Centre Medcenter and see if they have a prototype exoskeleton in your size. Once we’ve done that, we’re going to Mustafar.” _And I really hope we don’t have to kill Anakin to stop him._ Obi-Wan silently completed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m guessing that most people will know what Anakin was hiding from Ahsoka, and why the mirror and lights exploded. I’ll be continuing this fairly soon, particularly if my tablet doesn’t eat any more half-finished chapters.


	25. "...Only pure love can change your destiny."

As soon as his cockpit opened on Mustafar, Anakin could smell the sulphur from the volcanoes. One of the most tectonically active planets in the galaxy, Mustafar was usually described as one continual volcanic eruption.

Looking around, Anakin could see where it had got that reputation from. The air wasn't chokingly full of ash, but there was enough that he was left using the Force to control his cough reflex. The clone troopers waiting for him at the landing pad looked distinctly ash-coated.

"Master Skywalker." One of them greeted him. "Rex is waiting for you at the forward command post."

"Thank you, Scope." Anakin replied. He didn't every last one of the troopers in the 501st by name or reputation, but he knew all of them by sight.

"It's an honour, General."

Forming up into a ceremonial escort formation, Anakin appreciated that none of the clones stood behind him. He knew and trusted them, but Tiplar had trusted her killer. At the moment, and until the damned chips had been surgically removed, he wasn't in the mood to take chances.

Rex's command post, or CP, was half a mile away, at the head of a valley overlooking a mining facility. From the surrounding hillsides, where cover was available, Anakin could see exchanges of gunfire, with blue and red blaster bolts flicking back and forth. The clones weren't close to a breakthrough, but he could see that their casualty rate was far lower than that of the droids they were engaging. At the door of the facility, Anakin spotted two magnaguards, although they were simply holding the doors.

Rex, watching from his command post, came out to meet Anakin.

"Boss." He said. "We've got them surrounded. A shuttle tried to bug out just after we arrived, but it got nailed with a SAM (1), so they're considering their options."

"Have you got armour planetside yet?" Anakin asked, looking at the CIS fighting position.

"We've got a walker platoon making their way here, but they needed a larger LZ (2) than a starfighter or transport does. Depending on what they run into, it might be two more hours until they arrive."

"What about air support?" Anakin asked.

"They've got SAMs as well. The last gunship to try nearly got knocked down. So we have to dig them out the old fashioned way."

"I'm here now." Anakin replied. "Get a team together. We'll jump off in ten minutes."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It took Obi-wan and Shaak-Ti about ten minutes to arrive. Ahsoka, who'd managed to float herself into her hoverchair, giggled slightly as Obi-wan landed. The Jedi Master was piloting a large, expensive and bright red open airspeeder with an open canopy. To her surprise, it had a rear passenger compartment that was big enough for an adult. One of the rear seats had been removed, presumably to make room for her hoverchair. Obi-wan helped her load her hoverchair into the airspeeder. Once the chair was clamped in place, Obi-wan climbed back into the driver’s seat and secured his restraining belts.

 The flight lasted about five minutes. To Ahsoka's surprise, Obi-wan turned out to be a far better driver than her master. It made her wonder exactly who had taught Anakin to drive, and on what planet.

"Where did Anakin learn to drive?" She asked curiously. Her master was not exactly renowned for correct use of directional signals. Or obeying the skylane code. Or consideration for other users of the same section of sky.

"On Tatooine." Obi-wan replied. "Driving podracers."

"Oh." Ahsoka said, suddenly remembering a small, interesting scar behind her master's right shoulder blade.

The medical centre was the top floors of a larger apartment building, and unsurprisingly well equipped. Her hoverchair was pushed through a sequence of corridors and into a section marked cybernetics.

They followed the corridor for a short distance, perhaps twenty feet or so, and then turned into a small lab.

She smiled when she saw what was waiting for her. After an incident involving a blister agent attack on Nal Hutta, Anakin had insisted on her being issued her own suit of phase two armour. She'd been 3D scanned in her underwear, much to her embarrassment. With the scan complete, her armour had been specifically fabricated in order for it to fit her perfectly.

It'd ended up in storage. It seemed, though, that it was being given a new lease of life. Along the outside of her armour, Ahsoka could see filaments and fibres. There were also small servos and pneumatic rams. Her old helmet was never going to fit her again, given the changes to her montrals. Instead, a new helmet had been fabricated.

She couldn't resist using the Force to pull it over and examine it. The montral housing was significantly oversized, almost large enough for Master Shaak-Ti's montrals to fit inside. A pair of slots provided an escape for her front lekku, with protective mesh housings for them. When she put the helmet on, she felt like she was suddenly missing a sense. Normally, she was aware of every movement around her and every sudden noise. Now, they were totally muted by thick layers of plastoid and foam.

The helmet had audio-pickups, which transmitted the sounds in human audible range inside her helmet. The vision system was very satisfying, featuring thermal, low light and X-ray modes. Admittedly, she couldn't smell anything, but that wasn't a major issue.

Obi-wan and one of the staff helped her out of the hoverchair, before leading her across to the suit. With the Force, Obi-wan was able to support her bodyweight while the suit was secured, and a small device pricked the back of her neck. Most of the buckles needed to be adjusted inwards, although she grinned slightly when the chest layer was let out.

"We've just fitted the neural pickup, knight Tano." The cyberneticist said. "Try and take two steps towards the centre of the room.

With an invisible grimace while ensconced in a fully seal suit of clone armour, Ahsoka stepped forward, and then took another step. It wasn't quite as she remembered it, but she was walking.

Then she remembered her spinal injuries.

"How am I walking?" She asked.

"The armour is doing most of the work, knight Tano. We borrowed some tech from the Astartes program, and we fitted it to the outside of your armour. The pick-up transmits your instructions to your muscles, and some extremely classified technology deciphers them. The hardware on the outside of your armour then acts as if it was one of your muscle groups."

Ahsoka very nearly kissed the technician.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Crouching behind a barricade, Anakin adjusted the straightforward breastplate he'd borrowed from a clone shot in the legs. It wasn't necessarily going to stop a direct blaster hit, particularly at close range, but it might save his life. With a grim smile, he produced an extremely archaic metal item. About the size of a large stylus, the whistle was perhaps a centimetre around. He had no idea where they had been found, but most Jedi carried one. Placing it between his lips, he waited ten seconds, and then blew a three second, continuous blast.

Across the valley, clones began to advance. Shielding his troop, Anakin pushed forwards, linking up with several other elements as they began to push back the battledroids defending the facility.

The first magnaguard came out of the entrance fighting. Blocking a blow at his head, Anakin replied with a cut to the droid's chestplate, nearly disabling the unit. Then it was shot about fifty times by the clones around the Jedi Master, and ceased to function. An ion grenade cleared the doorway, disabling the second magnaguard. Anakin led the advance inside, his lightsaber forming a shield for the clones surrounding him.

The CIS leadership were waiting in a conference room fifteen metres beyond the door, behind an improvised fortification build using the local volcanic sand, packed into bags. Two repeating blasters fired on the Jedi as he advanced. Precision shots from behind him disabled the gunners, and the bolts stopped flying.

 There was a flurry of fighting as the clones reached the CIS holdout point, and the last droids fell. Four clones were also dead on the floor, and five more had been wounded in the fight.

The door of the conference room flew backwards as Anakin slammed a surge of force energy into it, and he stepped through the door, lightsaber lit.

His eyes blazed yellow as he advanced on the CIS commanders.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka had barely been able to sit still during the flight to Mustafar. They'd taken off perhaps two hours behind Anakin, and were on final approach when both Ahsoka and Obi-wan began to look uncomfortable.

"What's happening?" Shaak-Ti asked, from the pilot's seat. Obi-wan had declined the offer of piloting the light shuttle they were using. Ahsoka had wanted to fly, but been vetoed on grounds related to untested cybernetic suits.

"He's..." Ahsoka broke off.

"I feel it too..." Obi-wan said. "We need to land as soon as possible."

As the shuttle dropped onto the landing apron outside the CIS base, Obi-wan watched as Ahsoka discarded her helmet, before deliberately setting her lightsabers aside.

Shaking his head, he disembarked.

"Where is General Skywalker?" He asked a clone.

"Out on the balcony, General Kenobi." The clone replied. "You might want to avoid the conference room. It's a bit messy."

"Oh Force." Obi-wan said out loud. "Anakin, what have you done?"

At a jog, he followed his sense of where Anakin was and emerged onto an open balcony, where his former padawan was dangling what looked like an incredibly uncomfortable neomoidian over a river of lava.

"Are you sorry yet?" Anakin yelled. "You tried to kill my children! You tried to kill Padme! You tried to kill Ahsoka! And now you're going to pay for it!"

"Anakin!" Obi-wan called. "Put him down."

The last thing anyone saw of Nute Gunray was him disappearing into a stream of molten rock as Anakin released his telekinetic grip.

"Anakin!" Obi-wan shouted.

"He tried to hurt my children!" Anakin yelled.

"Revenge isn't the Jedi way, Anakin."

"I wanted him to know fear." Anakin finally looked at his former teacher. "I wanted him to know what it felt like."

Obi-wan recoiled. "Anakin, please." He said.

"Are you here to lecture me, old man?" Anakin asked.

"No. I came here to help you."

"Liar!" Anakin yelled. "You came here to kill me!" With his lightsaber drawn, he advanced. Obi-wan took up his ready stance.

"Stand down, Anakin." He said, sternly. "I don't want to hurt you!"

“Don’t lie to me!” Anakin yelled, before lunging forwards with his lightsaber, swinging at his Master’s shoulder. Obi-Wan’s guard was perfect, the two sabers meeting at the exactly optimal angle, but it still gave under the power of the stroke.

As Anakin stepped back, Obi-wan saw a slight opening in his stance. He didn’t take it, and simply braced for the next onslaught. Five cuts pounded his defences in quick succession, and he realised, much to his horror, that Anakin was trying to kill him.

And that he had two choices: fight back in earnest, or continue to defend himself, and hope Anakin came to his senses.

 _Why is there never a good option?_ He silently demanded, before a cut from Anakin nearly got through his guard. With a heavy heart, Obi-Wan went on the offensive. _If I hold back, he will eventually kill me. If I don’t, I could quite possibly end up killing him._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

From a distance, Ahsoka had felt Nute Gunray die. Following behind Obi-Wan, she saw Anakin strike at his former Master with his lightsaber, attacking mercilessly. Obi-Wan was attacking as well, his lightsaber carving complex hieroglyphs in the air. She didn't doubt for so much as an instant that they were fighting in earnest. Or that Obi-Wan was holding back.

"Anakin!" She called. "Please. Stop!"

Her lover stepped away from Obi-Wan, although he left his lightsaber powered.

"Did you come here to help him kill me?" Anakin demanded.

"Anakin, I love you." She replied. "I came here because I love you. I’d never do anything to hurt you."

She moved closer.

"I don't know what made you do this, but please, come back to me." She stood, with her arms outstretched and her head bowed. Anakin's fury left her feeling like she was standing in the mouth of a blast furnace.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

When he’d first heard Ahsoka’s voice, Anakin had looked around. As the battle lust drained out of him, he looked at her properly. She was wearing clone armour, clearly the suit he’d had made for her years earlier. Her lightsabers weren’t on her belt, which, for an absurd moment, he wanted to chide her for.

Then she looked into his eyes, visibly forcing herself not to flinch away from the burning yellow orbs. "I love you." As Anakin looked at her, Ahsoka let down nearly every metal barrier she possessed. Openly, she began broadcasting her feelings about him, her love for him, and her utter trust in him. Looking him in the eyes, she remembered their first night together, building aches and snatches of sensation into a coherent set of memories. She showed him his tenderness, his love for her, and her love for him.

Still retaining eye contact, even though the eyes she was looking into were yellow, rather than a soft blue, she laced her fingers together. She rested her hands on her third lekku, behind her head, and finally looked away. Then she closed her eyes, and shut herself down as much as possible in the Force. _I trust Anakin._ She thought. _I know he loves me. He won’t hurt me._

The next contact she felt was Anakin kissing her like a drowning man, pulling her close, frantically. Her arms wrapped around him, and she just relaxed into the embrace. She reached out, finding him in the Force, and mingled her Force presence with his, sending streams of calm, love and trust to her fiancé.

Behind them, Obi-wan lowered his lightsaber, and powered down the weapon, before slotting it onto his belt. Anakin’s eyes were their normal shade of blue when he came up for air.

“I…” He said.

“I know.” Ahsoka replied.

Carefully, Anakin led the way back to the shuttle. It wasn’t long until they were passing the room in which the CIS command had finally been cornered. Ahsoka bristled slightly as Anakin made a point of pointing her head away from the door. When she trod on something that felt like an arm, he didn’t allow her to look, which earnt him an elbow in the stomach.

“Ahsoka.” He said. “What happened in there… isn’t something you need or want to see.”

She nodded, slowly. Behind her, she could feel Obi-Wan trying to control his stomach.

Outside the entrance, he relaxed, but he kept hold of her. Various clones ran up, presenting status reports, but he just waved them away. Ahead, Anakin could see the shuttle they had arrived in, an Eta-class unit. He could feel Shaak-Ti on board, and relaxed further as Ahsoka calmly walked up the ramp, and sat down, buckling herself, then him in for take-off.

Anakin didn’t let go of her until the shuttle had taken off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) SAM: Surface to Air Missile  
> (2) LZ: Landing Zone
> 
> Tiny bit of a quicker turn-around than I sometimes manage to produce. I had mostly planned out this chapter while writing the previous one, so I didn’t have to do the same amount of coming up with ideas that I sometimes do.


	26. Journey to Coruscant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I was writing this, I had a few bits of hardware trouble again, although I finally got this to a conclusion. I’ve got a whole constellation of ideas on where to take this story now, and have already written a section of a chapter/adventure in the story’s future.

Once the shuttle was in hyperspace, Anakin began to talk.

"Master, do you remember what I said happened before Geonosis?" He asked.

"You travelled to Tatooine and discovered your mother had been taken by sand people. When you infiltrated their camp to rescue her, she died in your arms." Obi-wan said.

"There was something that I didn't tell you, master." Anakin said. "After my mother died, I... killed... every sand person in that camp. Not just the warriors. The women... and... The children. Their animals. Every last living being in that camp died at my hand that night."

"Force." Obi-wan swore. "Anakin..." his voice wasn't angry. It was just sad and disappointed.

"I don't want to have done it. If... I could undo it... I would." Anakin said. "Every night, at first, I saw the children... The women... I saw them every night... every time I closed my eyes. Over time... they disappeared. I don't dream about them as much anymore." Ahsoka snuggled against him.

"When I was doing it, I could hear a voice, pleading for me to stop." Anakin continued. "I think it was Master Qui-Gon."

"Anakin, he died thirteen years ago on Naboo." Obi-wan reminded his former padawan.

"I heard him." Anakin insisted. "When they tried to kill Padmé... The twins... I lost control." He paused for a second. "I made some new phantoms. They were nearly all unarmed. Defenceless. But I cut them down without any thought, other than that they deserved to die."

"What happened was a gross breach of the Jedi Code, Anakin. You killed dozens of unarmed prisoners. There will be consequences." He warned. "You won't remain on the council."

"Ahsoka?" He asked.

"I love you, Skyguy." She replied. "I don't think that I'm going to stop loving you."

"How exactly are you walking?" He asked. "Last time I checked, you could barely move your right leg, and your left wasn't much better."

"It's the armour." She replied. "They borrowed some tech from something called the Astartes Program. I'm wearing a chip on the back of my neck." She turned her head to one side, giving Anakin a look at what he strongly suspected to be a highly modified shock collar. _That will be interesting to explore, if Ahsoka wants to explore it._ "It feeds data to the armour, and turns that into motion."

"Do they do a swimwear edition?" Anakin asked, jokingly.

Ahsoka playfully hit him with a datapad. “Not at the moment, Skyguy.” She said. “I’m sure if we asked nicely…” she didn’t say anything more, instead looking at him with a look that suggested that sex was on her mind.

Anakin smiled back at her.

Then they settled back for the long hyper jump back to Coruscant, via the Hydian Way. Even with the class one hyperdrive fitted to the shuttle, it wasn’t a short jump.

Half an hour into the flight, Anakin broke out the ration packs from the food locker. Ahsoka quickly laid claim to a steak and kidney pack, which had a red stripe to indicate it was designed for carnivores. Shaak-Ti, somewhat less vigorously, took possession of a second pack, containing a liver and bacon stew.

Watching warily, Anakin settled for an all-day corellian breakfast. He knew full well that he was unlikely to retain all of the contents. Obi-Wan, possibly more sensibly, went for a vegetarian meal from Alderaan.

It was perhaps five minutes before someone tried to steal from Anakin’s plate. With an amused look, he noticed a half-eaten sausage begin to slightly spin around its long axis, floating a few millimetres from his plate. Knowing the tell-tale sign of attempted theft, he impaled it firmly, before glancing at Ahsoka. His former padawan was looking innocently in an entirely different direction.

“Snips.” Anakin said. “You never did those control exercises, did you?”

Ahsoka continued to look in the opposite direction, her cheeks working. Anakin looked down at his ration pack again, and noticed that a rasher of bacon had disappeared.

She twitched her head sideways to avoid the extremely stealthy fork just before it jabbed into her third lekku.

Before long, their cutlery, random spare components and empty meal trays were dogfighting in the middle of the cabin. Ahsoka ended up losing after Anakin snuck a table knife through her guard, and tapped her on the nose with it.

Both of them had been doing their control exercises.

Obi-wan and Shaak-Ti looked on in sheer bemusement.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Willuf Tarkin wasn't happy.

The chancellor he'd personally served had been murdered by a Jedi. The Jedi had been acquitted after Palpatine was found to be a traitor and a Sith Lord. The Jedi was marrying a non-human of the opposite biological gender (1). Most of his close allies and cronies had been picked up by special forces units in board daylight.

He was about to get a lot less happy.

Outside his apartment building, had he looked closely, he would have seen a plain grey van. Inside the van, if he'd been able to see, were four clone commandos. Boss, Scorch, Fixer and Darman, replacing the MIA Sev, were officially designated as Delta Squad. They were fully equipped to penetrate the defences of a military compound expecting them to drop by.

Moving in tight formation, the clones walked through the main public entrance. The doors didn't require a keycard or anything similar. Once inside, they disabled an empty turbolift after checking that it ran to the penthouse floor.

"I thought we were done with the long climbs." Scorch groused, as they proceeded up half a mile of emergency access ladder.

"We are." Boss replied. "The last one lives in a houseboat out in the great western sea."

"Oh. One of the ones where you can build sandcastles?"

"Yes. Cut the chatter, Six Two."

The rest of the climb was conducted in silence.

Scorch, leading the climb, prepped the breaching charge when he reached the top of the ladder.

"Red red green, or red green red?" He muttered as he set up the charge, a carefully metered amount of explosives that would disable a locking mechanism, but not anyone standing more than a foot away.

"You know that answer." Boss replied, before Scorch pressed the button.

The charge blew, and the turbolift door failed open, allowing the commando team to storm Tarkin's front door with the ferocity typical of Special Forces, preceded by a flash grenade

The politician was hiding under a table when they dragged him out, and surrounded by rare flowering plants.

“Willuf Tarkin, I am arresting you in the name of the Galactic Republic, on suspicion of High Treason.” Boss told him, as Fixer secured the man’s hands behind his back using stun cuffs. “You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything that you do say will be recorded and used in evidence.”

Tarkin didn’t say anything.

The speeder taking him to custody arrived, and the Moff was driven away, heading for the nearest police station.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“60 credits please, Master.” Anakin said, as Obi-Wan landed on one of his properties.

The Jedi master handed them over, grudgingly.

The Order considered that monopoly, played using an electronic random number generator, was one of the very few board games that did not result in trouble for Jedi. With the ease of cheating minimised, they could actually enjoy the game.

Ahsoka giggled slightly, looking at the rather small pile of chips left to Obi-Wan, along with the small number of deeds. As they were all more or less adults, a bottle of ne'tra gal, in the smallest size sold, had been broken out for each of them.

Unfortunately, Mandalorians and clones being what they were, the smallest bottle available was three litres.

Anakin sighed slightly.

“Snips,” he said. “You’re drunk.”

Ahsoka giggled again.

“Go to bed.” He told her.

The shuttle was fitted with beds, or at least folding bunks built into the walls that were comfortable enough. Ahsoka had already staked hers, which happened to be on the top row. With a tolerant smile, Anakin watched her clamber into it, snuggle into the covers, and start snoring, still wearing her armour.

“How is she?” Obi-Wan asked.

“She’s doing well.” Anakin replied.

“Any plans?” Obi-Wan asked.

“She’s seventeen, Master.” Anakin replied. “I’m not going to ask her to make those types of decisions for a while yet.”

Both Obi-Wan and Shaak-Ti nodded.

“But you are planning to marry her?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Dictum meum pactum.” (2) Anakin replied. “I love her. And she loves me.”

Then they all clambered into their bunks, although Obi-Wan and Shaak-Ti were sharing, Anakin noticed.  Through the open cockpit door, he could see Artoo at the controls, and relaxed onto his own bunk.

When he closed his eyes, he saw his mother’s face, looking stern, as if she’d caught him stealing from a vendor. She morphed into Qui-Gon, after a few moments. Although he hadn’t known the elder Jedi Master well, he could tell he wasn’t pleased. Then Palpatine’s face appeared, with a sickly gleeful expression.

Then Anakin catapulted awake, relieved to hear the navigation computer chiming a hyperspace exit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) If it had been another Jedi of the same gender, of any species, Tarkin would have felt equally unhappy.  
> (2) Latin: My word is my bond. (Oath used by London Stock Exchange)


	27. Return to Coruscant

There were things that Eta class shuttles were well known for.  Reliable, and carrying its own complement of speeder bikes, they were excellent for exploration missions. In the highly likely event of one seeing combat, a skilled pilot could get impressive performance from the craft. Three laser cannons gave it surprisingly dangerous teeth at close range.

However, it wasn’t renowned for making smooth atmospheric entries if it was conducting them in the fashion that Anakin Skywalker preferred. The atavistic pleasure of entering an atmosphere surrounded by a plasma sheath hadn’t yet lost its novelty for the Jedi. It was a connection to the humans who ventured into space when fission power was cutting edge, relying on computers barely more capable than a child’s vocoder.

Given that he had three full members of the Jedi council aboard, even if he wasn’t likely to sit on that body for much longer, Anakin took things carefully. In practice, that meant that there was no spectacular flare around his shuttle, although he did get a little bit of a glow going before he hit the stratosphere.

In a shuttle, his general rule was ‘if Obi-wan notices, back off.” As his master was currently meditating, he took a certain pleasure from not disturbing him.

Neatly, Anakin dropped the shuttle into a high-altitude traffic lane. Unlike those at lower elevations, this lane was used by orbital traffic, with intrasystem haulers and interstellar vehicles occupying the same section of airspace.

Broadcasting a Jedi Order priority code, Anakin cut through the bulk freighters and haulers with a considerable dispatch. As he wove through the traffic, he could feel his master's nerves, and dialled up the inertial compensator to mask the manoeuvres he was making.

After ten minutes of weaving through high altitude traffic, Anakin began his approach to the temple. The last time he'd made the flight, Ahsoka had been waiting for him, rather than sitting beside him in the cockpit.

Ahsoka batted him around the head as he stepped out of the cockpit, leaving the final approach to the shuttle’s flight computer. Pulling her in close, Anakin bent down slightly, before her face turned upwards at the exactly optimal angle. Breathing, Anakin decided shortly afterwards, was a decidedly secondary proposition. 

None of the Jedi had any trouble at all keeping their balance, thanks both to the inertial compensator, and their own sense of balance. Neither of the senior masters acted as if they’d noticed the kiss. Admittedly, they were holding hands, so he suspected that negatively commenting wasn’t on their agenda.

Looking through at them, Obi-wan glanced at Shaak-Ti, who was apparently meditating. The younger humanoids were cuddled together, Anakin using one hand to cup his former padawan’s head, and one to just hold Ahsoka close. He remembered his reaction, less than a month before, to Ahsoka merely acting as if she and Anakin were lovers. He'd torn Anakin off a strip.

What had fundamentally changed his mind was feeling the way the force itself had danced as they kissed before the council. Something in the swirl of emotions had felt like a cosmic tuning fork, chiming a single, perfect note. He'd read descriptions of the Force itself seemingly taking delight in events, and he'd recognised what they described. That said, the description, he felt, was like describing the taste of the colour blue. It was fundamentally accurate, yet impossibly wrong.

The way Anakin had reacted on the landing pad of the restaurant where Ahsoka's life had changed forever had been shocking. He knew Anakin had a temper. He knew that he had been placed on the front lines of a galactic conflict, virtually without respite, for three years. But, he'd only truly seen the consequences when he saw his former padawan shout five men off of a landing pad. They'd been hit with enough force that the one who'd hit a wall had been initially assumed to be the victim of a starfighter crash. Every bone in his body had been shattered. Every organ had been shredded. Most of the tissues had briefly liquefied.

 _I knew when I took Anakin as my padawan that he had a lot of raw power in the force. But what had happened to that assassin... I doubt Yoda could easily do that much damage._ He thought.

He knew that his padawan had been changed by the war. By seeing friends die. He had been as well. He'd seen the after action reports. Anakin had been taking more risks, both for himself and with others. His treatment of separatist prisoners had deteriorated. On occasions, Obi-wan knew, prisoners hadn't been taken at all. He'd become more brooding. More aggressive.

Ahsoka hadn't changed as much. She'd become more confident, sometimes overly so. Again, though, her lightsaber, then both of them, had become something that she drew more lightly.

 _I failed Anakin._ Obi-wan thought _. I should have been more aware. I should have spent time making sure I knew what he was thinking._

Inside, he knew he'd changed. The death of Duchess Satine Kryze, his lover, had left him distraught for weeks. He knew that he'd come far closer to the dark side than he would like during that period, with simple anger at her killer. If he'd caught up with Darth Maul, he suspected he would now be wearing a black robe and carrying a red lightsaber.

The force senses from the cockpit end of the shuttle had changed slightly, which caused him to send Anakin a pointed suggestion to keep it down. He felt a degree of embarrassment from his padawan, and the interference stopped. They hadn't segued into anything that would be a distraction for Anakin, but feeling the Jedi equivalent of someone whispering sweet nothings had been disorienting.

"He has good taste." Shaak-Ti said from beside him. "He has very good taste."

"He's not alone in that." Obi-wan murmured, looking down at the woman he could only describe as his paramour.

"We're coming in to land." Anakin called through, slipping back into the pilot’s seat. Despite their pilot being one of the half dozen finest in the galaxy, Obi-wan still pulled himself into his seat and donned a crash harness.

"Don't hit the minarets." He told Anakin.

"I'm flying a shuttle, not a dreadnought." Anakin shot back. "This thing isn't in two halves, either."

"I'm sure you'll be fine then." Obi-wan replied.

Coming into the hangar at about ten miles per hour, Anakin located their berth, conveniently highlighted by flashing lights, and ruddered around. With a series of movements, he deftly tucked the shuttle into the designated berth, and raised the wings. Carefully, he disengaged the repsulorlifts,, before dropping the shuttle down onto its landing gear. The landing was smooth enough that a tea cup would not have rattled.

"Another happy landing." He commented to Obi-wan, as he exited, carrying his flight bag on his shoulder, able to feel the full mass of the Jedi council, excepting those on the shuttle, outside the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought this fic was mostly dead. It isn't. I am brimming with ideas again, although with university starting in under a week, I can't promise another chapter for a fortnight.


	28. Reformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again, bit of an update lag, which I almost entirely blame on my university studies, and the amount of effort it takes to study and have any time left for the rest of your life. Hopefully, this will at least make up for some of it, even if there is a tinge of Author Tract to it at some points.

With an armoured togruta at his back, along with two Jedi masters, Anakin would have felt more comfortable facing any other foe than the diminutive, green being waiting at the foot of the ramp.

“Master Skywalker.” Yoda greeted him. “Bought dire tidings, Master  Kenobi has. To the dark side, you nearly fell, he says.”

“I did, Master” Anakin replied. “But I had something to bring me back.” Turning on his heel, Anakin took a rather firm grip of Ahsoka, and kissed her. They were only in contact for a few moments, but it was still an incredibly satisfying experience.

“Nevertheless, punished, you must be.” Yoda said. “Thrown out of the Order, Master Windu recommends.”

“I’m sure he does, Master.” Anakin replied, glancing at Windu briefly.

“However, a far more fitting penalty, I have in store.” Yoda said, holding out a large folder of flimsiplast. “To reflect on your actions, give you time, this will.”

“Is there an alternative, Master?” Anakin replied.

“A job, get.” Yoda said, sternly. “And your lightsaber return.”

Two weeks later:

They'd sentenced him to a committee. Not thrown him off the Council. Not shipped him off to an enclave in the Outer Rim. Not expelled him from the Order. They'd handed him an inch thick folder, and the chair of a committee to renew the Jedi Order. It was something that was held every few years. They'd be a few changes, usually. An activity wouldn't breach the Jedi Code, or would be found in breach of it. Changes to recruitment practices would be agreed, such as the right type of Jedi to recruit particular species.

Anakin remembered Yoda taking him aside, though.

"A boring job this will be, Young Skywalker." The wizened Jedi Master had said. "But power, the chair has. Reform the order, that chair can. Change the code, the chair cannot. But change the meaning, he can."

Although it wasn’t exactly his favourite activity, Anakin had spent a significant amount of time studying the Code, and the Jedi Path, judging it an accurate depiction of the majority of orthodox Jedi.

So, today, Anakin stood up at the head of the conference table, brandishing a blue book, made from flimsiplast.

"Can anyone tell me what this is?" He asked. "Perhaps Master Donial will know."

The head of the Jedi recruitment office stood up. "It's a copy of the Jedi Path, Master Skywalker."

"Anakin replied by flipping the book so that he was holding it like a throwing knife, before throwing it at the human master.

"In it, I believe some of the 'slurs' against the Jedi recruitment division of the day are listed." Anakin said. "Such is at being acceptable for Jedi to abduct children against the wishes of their parents on the grounds they have the legal right to kriffing do so!" Anakin said, his voice rising. "On Tatooine and in much of the Outer Rim, it is legal to keep another person as a slave, and implant an explosive device into a child!" He continued, still at significantly greater volume than conversational. "Is that acceptable in the eyes of the Order? It's legal."

"Slavery isn't right, Master Skywalker..." Donial replied.

"And abducting children is?" Anakin demanded.

"It is our legal right..."

"And it was the legal right of a Hutt to implant an explosive device in my shoulder because I belonged to him!" Anakin roared. "Was that right?"

"No..."

"Exactly!" Anakin bellowed. "Just because something is kriffing legal doesn't make it right."

"But it's the only way of training a Jedi so that they don't have emotional ties..." Donial said.

"How many Padawans have you trained, exactly?" Anakin asked.

"Four." Donial replied proudly.

"And what would you have done to save one of them from slavery or death?"

"Anyth..." he began.

Anakin cut him off. "Why?"

"Because... I... it's my responsibility." He said.

"And not because you feel that they are the most important thing in your world?" Anakin asked.

"You've trained one Padawan." Donial rebuffed Anakin. "And you are engaged to her."

"I love Ahsoka." Anakin replied. "But she was my Padawan for three years. I didn't spend that time in love with her. I was fighting alongside her. She was my little sister, a hyperactive nuisance with little sense of personal danger at times, but not a sex object, regardless of what West Rim news suggests. What would you have done for your Padawan?"

"Anything." Donial admitted.

"Why?" Anakin asked. "If not for your responsibilities?"

"I don't know." Donial answered, after a half minute or more of thought.

Anakin glanced around the table.

"Anyone?"

"Because they're your padawan." One of the knights from the Exploration Corps replied. "They're the closest thing most Jedi will ever have to a son or daughter."

"I rest my case." Anakin replied. "Many of us treat our padawans as substitutes for our own children. We grow emotionally attached to them. We buy them presents without a practical use. We care for them. We risk our lives when they are in danger, far more than we ever would for a clone."

"So?" Donial asked.

"So how do you think their biological parents feel? The ones who have borne that child for close to a standard year? Who unconditionally love them, just for existing?" Anakin paused. "How do you think they feel when some stranger in a Jedi robe walks onto the ward, and tests their child for Force Sensitivity?"

"Nervous." Donial replied, with the air of someone who'd been that robed stranger a thousand times.

"I'd be terrified." Anakin replied. "To think that this total stranger has the power to take my child from me, regardless of my consent, based purely on the results of a blood test."

"It's our right..." Donial repeated.

"It's wrong." Anakin said. "Just because they have emotional ties to their family does not make them less of a Jedi."

"You went rogue!" Donial retorted.

"If I'd travelled when I first dreamt about my mother, she'd still be alive." Anakin said, almost subdued with sheer emotion, not bothering to hold back his tears. "I tried to follow your damned code. And my mother is dead because I did."

"And this sort of reac..."

"Do you know anything about your mother?" Anakin yelled.

Donial gaped at him.

"I knew my mother." Anakin said. "She did everything she ever could for me. I would have done anything to save her. If I'd arrived a day earlier, she'd still be alive. Still be married to a decent man." His voice cracked, before he continued. "She gave everything for me. And I failed."

"There is no emotion, there is peace." Donial said.

"I prefer 'Emotion, Yet Peace." Anakin replied. "It accepts that we will feel emotions, but that we can have peace in spite of those emotions. Just like the rest of the Galaxy. If you simply ignore your emotions, what do you become?” Anakin asked.

"Jedi must be above emotion." Donial replied. “But I understand what you are saying. A Jedi who entirely abandons emotion… is in breach of the spirit of the code.”

"I'm not going to do something just because I want to." Anakin said. "But I am not going to abandon my wife, or hand over my children to the Order outright. They have a right to know who their parents are, even if one of them isn't directly related to them and has montrals."

"Master Skywalker..." Donial said.

"We're going to change the damned law. When we go out, how often do you see people making warding gestures?"

"People don't entirely understand us..." one of the other Jedi masters said.

"There's an old saying: people fear what they don't understand. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. And there will never be enough Jedi to survive that hatred. If we disappeared tomorrow, we'd be romanticized. But we wouldn't be missed. We'd become like nabooan pirates. They'd make films about famous Jedi. But we'd be something from the past."

"What are you proposing?" A Jedi Anakin recognised as Neja Halcyon, wearing the green robes of the Correlian branch of the Order. Anakin didn’t know too much about the green Jedi, generally. But he did know that Master Halcyon’s padawan bore an extremely close resemblance to him.

"That we become popular. Not that we give up our mystique, but that we become something that everyone knows is out there, for them to call on."

"How?"

"Send the healers into hospitals, for a start. Our average healers have more medical experience on their own than the average trauma team has combined. We start carrying out anti-slavery patrols, to interdict slave ships, and rescue the slaves. We join responses to disasters. We start families, and allow our apprentices to meet theirs, and be raised by them. Make being a Jedi a profession, not a religion."

"This goes against thousands of years of doctrine!" A somewhat wizened Jedi pronounced. "Back in my day, if a Jedi spent the night with a courtesan, they were punished. We must follow the code."

"Whose code?" Anakin asked. “The code of five thousand years ago? The code of a thousand years ago? The code of the Jed’daii order?”

"The Jedi Code, as set down by Odan-Urr."

"I follow the Jedi code. I believe that being restricted because of it isn't right. You've seen the plans Palpatine had made: he'd have exterminated us, and we'd have been less missed than the latest boy band with a single hit to break up."

"We hold the republic together."

"By force?" Anakin asked. "Or because we are its conscience?"

"We..."

"Anakin just looked at the man, representing a highly doctrinaire enclave rumoured to only accept apprentices within an hour of their birth. ”If we want the public to have more than a wary respect for us, we need to be something more than an order of child snatchers in robes. We need to be a group don’t who keep almost everything about themselves a secret."

"Are you proposing to disperse the Order?" One of the silent masters asked.

"No." Anakin replied. "There are thousands of inhabited planets in this galaxy. We could train every force-sensitive infant we find, and not have enough to assign a Jedi to each. What I'm proposing is that we become popular with the population at large."

"We need them to respect us."

“I don’t propose to destroy our mystique entirely, and I'm certainly not proposing to let them film the junior Knights out on the town." Anakin replied with a smile. "Although it would 'humanise' us." He deliberately dropped the inverted commas around the word. "If when they see a Jedi, they see someone who they know about, or can understand the motives of, we become less threatening. There'll always be a chunk of the population who hate us, but the CSF don't fare any better." He smiled slightly, remembering the times he'd thought every officer in the CSF was out to stop him having fun.

"Anakin." Obi-wan said. "The number of times you were delivered to me by a pair of CSF patrollers, on occasions in stun-cuffs, after being arrested for participation in illegal, highly dangerous sports, I'm not surprised you held grudges."

"Never against the individuals."

"You sabotaged a patrol speeder after the crew repeatedly picked you up base jumping in the Senate district."

"That was one time!" Anakin protested.

"It did a barrel roll every time they pressed the brakes." Obi-wan pointed out.

There were a couple of snickers from around the room.

"I apologised..." Anakin said, hopefully.

"Because it got you out of being the first padawan in thirty years to end up in a young offenders institution." Obi-wan said. "Master Jinn taught me better than that."

"He taught you never to get caught." One of Qui-Gon's contemporaries commented. "We all knew what was going on with him and his friend from his padawan days. We just never caught them in the same hotel room. A bit like your diplomatic missions to Mandalore, Master Kenobi."

"I was carrying diplomatic messages." Obi-wan said, woodenly, schooling his face to near total blankness.

"They were random reports about the Senate and Coruscant public affairs. You weren't fooling anyone who'd seen a Jedi Knight in love."

"Master, if you'd had the choice, and Satine had said yes, would you have married her?" Anakin asked.

"In a heartbeat." Obi-Wan admitted, remembering again a woman who had transcended the barriers of mandalorian culture, fighting for peace, not for the sake of it. “She was… unique.”

"So, votes for not being the bogeyman of the civilized galaxy?" Anakin asked. "Adjusting the Jedi code so that the letter of it stands up to reality, allowing padawans to meet and be raised by their families, giving the media access to the Order in a controlled fashion and generally improving public relations?"

The show of hands passed the measure.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The committee didn’t wind down after that agreement had been reached. They now had a roadmap for where they wanted to get to. And that meant they had to hammer out a lot of additional policies. It took a fortnight to agree what level of contact initiates and padawans would be allowed with their families. Anakin had wanted them to live with their family when they weren't training or on a mission. What he ultimately agreed was that they would spend the weekends of weeks they weren't on missions with their families, and a solid week on returning from a mission with them. In exchange, he negotiated a full relaxation of the section of the code that prohibited relationships. Instead, Jedi were to be allowed to enter into relationships with relatively little oversight, so long as it was clear who was responsible for any 'accidents' that resulted.

He'd already had an effective dispensation for his relationship with Ahsoka. While he was working with the committee, she was spending her days in the temple medcenter, undergoing a battery of tests, followed by a series of therapy sessions, healing sessions, and a fair amount of hydrotherapy. She quite enjoyed that. Montrals were surprisingly streamlined, before they reached their adult growth. And they didn't fill with water when immersed, as she understood was the case for humanoids with open canals and external openings.

Anakin was getting her started on the A-Z of carnivore cooking book he'd bought. Every night, he produced a meal they could both eat. Hers would feature exclusively protein based products, while his would also feature vegetables. The rice substitute Padmé had introduced them both to saw heavy use.

Their evenings were spent in a variety of manners. Normally, there would be something on the holo. Ahsoka was intensely drawn to documentaries about wildlife, which Anakin teased her about being because she wanted to try them. Ahsoka usually retaliated by trying to order them from the specialist importers. Then there would usually be a film so soppy the datadiscs came in waterproof cases, before they retired for the night.

Those sessions were what really reinforced their relationship. Sometimes, it would be gentle and tender, with Anakin treating her like a china doll. Other times, it would be more primal.

Every morning, Ahsoka woke up to the smell of frying bacon, scrambled eggs and 'toast'. In her case, the toast was made by pulverising nerf meat, and then laying it down into something with a similar texture and structure to bread. Anakin ate a traditional human based grain version. Fully fuelled, they would then depart to their days, of headaches and committee work for Anakin, and physical therapy for Ahsoka, along with a course of physiological counselling.

It took Anakin two months to complete the committee process.

At the end of it, he presented his findings to the council, along with a proposed action package.

"During the committee process, we realised that the order has begun to suffer from an acute case of fossilisation." Anakin said. "The extreme restrictions on family contact, although sound from a perspective of minimising emotional attachments, also serve to desensitize Jedi to the effects of their actions. In particular, the mandatory removal of children from their families without appeal, merely because they are force sensitive, is an action that causes extensive trauma for the parents."

“It’s been part of Jedi policy for millennia, Master Skywalker.” Stass Allie replied.

“Does that make it right?” Anakin asked.

“It’s something we’ve nearly always done.” She said.

“Which makes it right?” Anakin repeated. “We’ve all had things shouted or thrown at us over the Baby Ludi case. You know how often the recruiters end up in physical confrontations with the parents of prospective recruits.”

“It’s because of their emotional attachments.” Allie stated.

“I was emotionally attached to my padawan within days of beginning her training.” Anakin said. “I know what came later, though. But I was her brother a long time before I became her lover. Every Jedi cares about their padawan. But biological parents love their children almost unconditionally. They’d do nearly anything for them. And that’s why they sometimes try to fight off a Jedi recruiter.”

“Even you admit it’s because of emotion.” She almost hissed.

“Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled... but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love... that's what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you... not condemn you.” Anakin quoted.

The tholothian master bristled at the quote. “Master Skywalker, the speaker of that quote originated the phrase ‘pulling a Bindo’ as a result of his actions. The woman he married and trained as a Jedi went on to kill dozens of Jedi before he brought an end to her actions.”

“If you never make a mistake, you’ve never tried anything new.” Anakin commented. “If the council had allowed him to train her openly, would she have fallen to the dark side at all?

“I don’t know.” Allie replied, looking slightly more thoughtful.

“What happens at the moment is that a Jedi has to keep secrets from the Order, in the knowledge that he risks expulsion from the only family he has ever known if he is ever found out.” Anakin commented. “And so Jedi keep love a secret. They fear being found out. Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” He paused, and took a quick sip from his hip flask. “Imagine, for instance, a secretly married Jedi knight, who is having visions of his wife dying in childbirth. And he’s offered, by someone he views as a friend, the power to save his wife from dying, in exchange for his allegiance. What do you think he is likely to do?”

“Take the offer.” Mace Windu commented. “Particularly if he utterly trusts that person.”

“Exactly. And then, imagine, say, that the Jedi Order carries out a coup aimed at his friend. How might he react?”

“Badly.” Obi-wan commented. “Particularly if he was an extremely powerful and skilled Jedi.” Anakin nodded slightly, knowing his master hadn’t entirely missed the subtext.”

“Your proposal is what?” Yoda asked.

“To allow Jedi below the rank of knight, during their training, to spend time with their biological families, with or without supervision from their master, unless a safeguarding issue exists.” Anakin replied. “Currently, the proposal that the committee agreed to is for initiates and padawans to spend weekends with their parents where possible.”

“Where possible?” Ki-Adi Mundi asked.

“Given that, for instance, my own Padawan was born on Shili, and has had almost no contact with her birth culture, it would have meant dropping a teenager into a family and telling her that the woman she’d never met before is her mother.”

“I can see that not being optimal.” Obi-Wan said.

“Your other proposals, present to us, Master Skywalker.” Yoda said.

“Well, master…” Anakin began, before laying out his entire reform process, which took him about six hours. Alongside a barrage of minor changes and philosophical points, the council agreed to allow Jedi to admit their affections for each other, and to allow them to raise their own children. They also agreed to Anakin’s proposal for initiates and padawans to be allowed family contact.

An additional, proposal from Shaak-Ti, was adopted, to ensure that padawans received a few classroom sessions focusing on issues related to the new ruling. The topics covered would be issues such as consent, the difference between love and lust, and the biological implications of intimacy. The potential for a less scrupulous padawan, which Anakin could easily imagine, to abuse the force for such matters, was enough to concern the entire council.

Finally, though, the reform package was voted through, with a few positive modifications that had been produced by the High Council.

Outside the chamber, Anakin simply took Ahsoka into his arms, barely noticing as his own master left arm in arm with Shaak-Ti. They were heading in the direction of the shared quarters they’d unofficially moved into shortly after the end of the fighting.

“Ahsoka Tano.” He whispered, his mouth close to her left montral. “Will you do me the tremendous honour of becoming my wife?”

The turmoil he felt in her presence reminded him that he’d never actually proposed to her.

Her response was a playful blow to the back of his head. “I already said I would.” She replied.


	29. Mutual Feelings: The Yavin Affair: A New Threat Emerges

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another break, another chapter. This chapter forms a the first part of a short(ish) and self-contained adventure featuring Obi-Wan, Anakin, and several guest characters from the Legends Canon

After the new code was brought in, changes started quite quickly. Anakin, sitting as a Master, despite his actions on Mustafar, saw a lot of Jedi Knights come before the council. He remembered one pair, a Knight who'd been trained since childhood, and another who'd been brought up on Nar Shaddaa as a gladiator. She'd acquired a scar on her left cheekbone winning her freedom. She'd travelled to Coruscant, being selected as a Jedi learner after her force sensitivity was discovered by a Master who tended towards the Greyer side of the force. Without the prohibitions, in his mind, being valid, he'd trained Kira, and, as a result, she'd met Riendi.

They’d been the typical Jedi-in-love, when he’d started to know what to look for. Unlike non-force sensitives, they hadn’t been trying to touch at every opportunity. Instead, it’d been little flickers of thought, half-perceptible by those on the edges, and a few, subtle looks.

“So, then.” He’d said. “I take it there aren’t any _additional_ reasons you’ve come to discuss this with us?”

Both of the humans had blushed, an act that was particularly noticeable on the red-headed female. “No, Master Skywalker.” The male said, after a moment. “We’re not expecting.” An unspoken yet hung onto the end of the sentence.

Anakin had responded by grinning slightly. “Well, I think in that case,” He’d said. “We can move on a little. IF you would please hold hands, while I recite the terms of bonding.”

Anakin had, through sheer repetition, memorized the essentially non-denominational service, which was designed to simply focus on love, rather than any of the thousands of religions in the Galaxy.

“In all the Galaxy, there is no greater force than true love. Love sustains, nourishes and protects. Without love, the Galaxy would be cold and empty. Your bond lends fire to the stars, dissolving the darkness.” He’d paused, and then continued. “Do you, Riendi Sundarter, take this woman as your wife, to honour in word and in deed?”

“I Do.” Riendi had replied.

“Do you, Kira Carsen, take this man as your husband, to cherish for the rest of your days?”

“I do.” She replied, meeting her fiancé’s green eyes with her blue eyes.

“Then may your love transcend time, distance and all barriers in between. The terms of Bonding are complete. You may now kiss.”

Anakin remembered the way the two had wrapped themselves around each other, and just kissed, furiously. Helping to resolve the issues created by the former interpretation of the Code was a duty that he, and the entire council, were finding extremely enjoyable.

He'd had more solemn duties, as well.

 -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Skyguy." Ahsoka said, more tonelessly than usual. "What are you thinking?"

"She framed you, Snips." Anakin replied, putting down the datapad, and the image of a young, female miralian. "You nearly faced a firing squad. She killed other Jedi." He was tired. The case had been working through a number of courts. Finally, it'd come before the Council again. "If I'd been delayed for five minutes..."

"You weren't. I didn't." Ahsoka said.

"She..."

"She was doing what she thought was right."

"Ahsoka!" Anakin gasped. "She framed you for murder, and nearly got you executed."

"I knew Bariss." Ahsoka replied. "She was a friend."

"She isn't mad, Ahsoka." Anakin said.

"Please..." Ahsoka said. "She needs help. I don't want to see her face ever again, but..."

He was somewhat surprised that she wanted to try and help her erstwhile friend, despite everything.

"Snips..."

"Skyguy, just try to get them to help her instead of..." She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't need to.

"It isn't our fight, Snips."

Ahsoka responded by throwing a cushion at his head.

"Do it for me." She said.

A few hours later, Anakin sat in his formal chair, wearing the formal robes of a Jedi Master. Yoda, in his role as Grand Master, presided over the court.

"Masters, fully aware of the facts we are. Confessed to us, Padawan Offee did. The murder of clones and Jedi, admits, she does."

"Her actions nearly led to us condemning Knight Tano to death." Mace Windu observed. "You've heard what she believes."

"She believes that virtually the entire order has fallen to the dark side." Obi-wan said. "And to expose this fact, she blew up a hangar, killing a large number of Jedi and other personnel." He shook his head. "Despite what the physiological assessment says, something is clearly wrong."

Luminara wasn't in her seat. Given that her padawan was on effective trial, she'd recused herself, after pressing Anakin to do the same.

"Master," Anakin said. "I don't know if she's mad or bad. Based on some of the schemes she and Ahsoka involved themselves in as padawans, they're probably both mad."

Most of the council smiled at that.

The final decision, though, was inevitable. Although some of her actions could be considered the product of acute mental illness, the framing of Ahsoka and the murder of her co-conspirator couldn't be.

"Sadly, there is only one penalty for this." Mace said, after the extended discussion. "She's been expelled from the Order. And I don't want to give someone who manipulated council members’ clemency."

Anakin looked at his fellow human briefly. He knew that most of the council bore something resembling guilt for their part incoming extremely close to destroying nearly everything Ahsoka had ever known. And that Mace Windu, champion of the 'Will of the Force' school, had a far larger load than most.

"Before this meeting, Ahsoka asked me to ask you not to execute Barriss. And to get her help. If we can help her, rather than the alternative..." Anakin said. "I think she'd start to trust you a bit more again.

The council continued debating, until they came to a collective conclusion. None of the council wanted to watch a Jedi who'd formerly been one of the rising stars of the Jedi Order face a firing squad. Republic law had left them with little choice. Barriss hadn't just murdered other Jedi, along with a number of clones and military personnel. She'd executed her accomplice while she was in custody to prevent her accomplice naming her as the supplier of nano-droids. She'd then framed another Jedi, very nearly causing her execution. And with every psychologist they'd hired to assess her telling them that although Barriss was delusional, but that she'd done everything deliberately enough, it'd been harder than anything else they'd faced.

Ultimately, though, they made their call.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The solemn tap of a single drum rang out over the secluded courtyard of the Jedi Temple. Anakin could feel the horror and panic in the miralian ex-Jedi as she was led out into the dawn sunlight, her hands bound behind her back. He knew what she was seeing.

A single upright stake.

Six clones, their rifles at parade rest.

A length of white cloth, wrapped around the top of the stake.

He watched, impassively, as she was led through the courtyard, under the eyes of the High Council, and a handful of other members of the order. He could see the aborted struggles. The determination not to try and break loose from the pair of Temple Guards escorting her. The determination not to show physical fear.

Each step was marked by a single tap of the drum, in the hands of a clone bandsman.

She was led to the stake, before the rope around her wrists was quickly bound to the post, and the cloth wrapped around the top of it was looped over her eyes, cutting them off from the world. Anakin could see the way she twisted slightly, trying to see, as the drum rolled a more rapid tattoo, then fell silent.

"Present." Anakin watched as, with parade-ground precision, the firing squad raised their rifles as one to their shoulders. There was a crash of plastoid as the stocks of the rifles hit the shoulders of their wielder's armour.

"Aim." Without sound, the rifles pivoted, aiming at the miralian's heart. In that moment, Anakin realised just how young she really was. Despite the pounding terror rolling off of her in waves, she kept her head facing ahead, and didn't try to fight her bonds.

"Fire!"

The command sent a volley of bolts slamming into Barriss Offee, slamming her against the post, her body shuddering with the impact of six rifle bolts at such close range. There was no need for a coup-de-grace. She was visibly dead before she slumped against the stake.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Anakin sat back in the office chair, next to the three members of the Sentinel Corps who'd been assigned to assist him with Operation Maniciple. Between them, they'd mocked up a realistic holorecording of Barriss facing a firing squad.

The real Barriss (the one not being interred as a pile of ashes) had been fitted with a permanent chip to block her access to the Force, and sent to a very secure and very private psychiatric hospital on Naboo, with her facial tattoos altered to disguise her appearance.

Even if an investigative journalist went digging with the aid of a forensic accountant, the money for her care was coming from a local mental health charity. The charity was paid through the nabooan planetary government, and funded by a very slim trail of private citizens, some of whom might have been members of the Jedi Order.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

As was starting to be the way, Anakin was snuggling with Ahsoka, holding her close, when his comlink went off.

"This is Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker's comlink," he said, holding the audio-only button down. "I'm afraid I cannot answer my comlink at the moment, so please leave a message after the tone."

"Anakin." Obi-wan said, from the other end. "It's an excellent impression of your voicemail, but you haven't updated it yet."

"What is it, Master?" He asked, wrapping an arm around Ahsoka.

"We've got a probable turncoat." Obi-wan replied. "An Anzat Jedi, named Nikkos Tyris, has been spending a lot of time in the library, and he seems to have found something he'd have been better off without."

"Please tell me it wasn't the Church of Scaminology textbooks."

"Worse." Obi-wan replied. "The journal of one of the first Dark Jedi."

"With respect, Master, what the kriff was that doing in the main library?"

"Master Mundi is looking into it, Anakin. The other problem is our Anzati friend having taken a coven with him."

"Master, I thought we'd stopped the last conflict with the Sith. Now we've got new Sith coming from within the order?"

"It's not ideal, Anakin. That's for sure. And I really do wish that these things didn't keep happening, and I could have a nice relax. Or take a respectful, quiet, studious padawan who doesn't lose his lightsaber regularly."

"I wasn't that bad, Master." Anakin said.

Obi-wan gave him the verbal equivalent of a look. "Hmm. Who was it, again, who was caught sneaking off to an illegal skylane racing circuit, aged fifteen?"

"I was, Master." Anakin replied.

"And who was it, during the test for his speeder license, who was pulled over for tailgating another speeder?"

"Are we going to go on all day, Master?" Anakin retorted.

"Not if you can be at the landing pad in the next ten minutes, to meet the team." Obi-wan said.

"I'll be there, Master." Anakin said, before ending the call and turning to Ahsoka.

"So, that's why you didn't have a speeder license when you started training me." She teased him. "Come back safe, Skyguy."

"I love you too, Snips." Anakin replied, dotting a kiss between her montrals. "I'll be home as soon as possible. I don't want to miss the twins."

Ahsoka gently batted him around the head. "And what about me?" She asked.

"I don't want to leave you alone, Snipsy. But if I can stop another group of Jedi founding a new group of Sith, it's my job. I love you." Ahsoka just lay there, half under the covers, while Anakin packed his go-bag with supplies for a week or so away, rather than the spare clothes, stack of dataries and prepaid anytime tickets for a flight to Nar Shaddaa that normally filled it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got some ideas where I'm planning to take the tale as a whole, and will be (hopefully) able to get at least another couple of chapters out before Christmas.


	30. Interlude: Christmas Special 2016

 Anakin wasn’t entirely sure if anyone had managed to explain the basic concept of Lifeday to his two children yet. Aged four months, they were still going to be extremely fuzzy on the idea.

Looking at the small pile of presents waiting for them, Anakin was starkly reminded again of the differences between a Jedi family and normal families. He didn’t have any relatives who were sending presents. Ahsoka had received a small gift from her mother, surprisingly. It sat under the tree, in pride of place. This year, they a real Lifeday tree, decorated in festive colours and with ribbons, with tinsel layered through the branches, and lit with multi-coloured fairy lights.

 

They’d decided not to get anything too specific for the twins. Ahsoka had picked up a small paint set for each of them, along with a foot square piece of canvas, already framed within a simple square of wood. Anakin had initially been looking at remote control starfighters, one in red, and one in yellow.

 -0-0-0-0-0-0-0- 

“What do you think?” he asked Ahsoka, holding up a pair of simple foam starfighters, each fitted with a tiny repulsorlift and two LED ‘laser’ cannons.

“They’re nice, Skyguy.” Ahsoka replied, a bantering tone in her voice. “Unfortunately, the minimum age on them is five."

“I was building my first Podracer when I was five.” Anakin retorted.

“Only because you lived on Tatooine.” Ahsoka pointed out. “Anywhere else in the galaxy, and you’d have been painting pictures with finger paints.”

“So, you think the twins wouldn’t like them?” Anakin said.

“I think they’d love watching them fly around, Skyguy.” Ahsoka said, looking down at the sleepy human infant riding on her chest in a carrier. Every now and again, she felt a few tugs on the one of her lekku, as Leia reacted to the irresistible brightly coloured object coming within arm’s length. Anakin was carrying Luke in a similar arrangement, and clearly enjoying occasionally teasing his son with small objects.

“Ah.” Reaching out, Anakin put them back on the shelf, with a slightly mournful look on his face.

“Skyguy?” Ahsoka asked. “Could you go and pick up some more meat pies?”

“Eaten them all already, Snips?” He responded, jokingly.

“Not all of them.” Ahsoka replied. “I seem to have a hard time finding any in the first place.”

Anakin sent her a mental image of Luke sitting on her head, holding onto her montrals, as she danced around their living room, before heading for the nearest food shop. Ahsoka waited until he’d gone, then picked up the starfighters from the shelf, and headed for the tills with them, and a number of other infant toys.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0- 

Anakin looked under the tree again, knowing that although the presents weren’t that numerous, that they’d each been chosen carefully. His gift to Ahsoka had been a pair of specially designed ‘headphones’ designed for Togruta. The devices consisted of two elements, the primary system being a layer of vibrating duraweave that could almost precisely mimic soundwaves. They also contained a small microphone, that allowed them to reproduce the sounds of her environment, allowing her to hear what was going on around her, and to ‘see’ it as well. He’d also gotten her a variety of little items, some useful, some ornamental.

His own presents from Ahsoka were confusingly wrapped, often in several layers of boxes and wrapping paper, if he was any judge.

It was the first Lifeday they’d actually had a chance to properly celebrate.

Their first Lifeday had been an abbreviated affair in the trenches of Ryloth, marked by special ration packs containing turkey, cranberry sauce and a couple of roast potatoes. Ahsoka’s version had contained protein-based versions of the latter two items.

Their second Lifeday had been spoilt by their separation and the disaster on Jabiim. Anakin had been pleased to note that shortly after the impeachment of Palpatine, that Kendal Ozzel had been removed from post pending charges of gross incompetence and cowardice in the face of the enemy.

Their third Lifeday together had been something more celebratory, although the events that followed took any joy out of the memories of small presents under a holographic shrub in Anakin’s quarters.

He had another present, alongside all of the others, which he valued more than everything he owned.

Ahsoka was walking unaided again.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“I can do it, Skyguy.” She insisted, supporting herself with the Force. Rather than sitting there watching, she’d been able to feel Anakin gathering a cushioning layer of Force energy, ready to break her fall when she released herself.

“I’m sure you can, Snips.” Anakin responded, evenly. “I just don’t want you picking up a bang on the head and forgetting what Leia’s favourite flavour of food is.”

“Sure you don’t.” Ahsoka twitted him. “I might forget about you, more like.”

Both of them smiled at the exchange, before Anakin mostly relaxed. Not enough that he didn’t stay ready to catch Ahsoka if she fell, though.

Bracing himself, he felt Ahsoka stop supporting herself with the Force, and almost instantly start to wobble. Anakin forced himself not to catch the togruta immediately, and just watched, before she successfully got her balance, and just stood there, upright.

About three seconds later, she just burst into tears.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It wasn’t just Anakin, Ahsoka and the twins who had presents under the tree. Given that they had a secure apartment, with enough floor-space for everyone to spread out, and enough chairs for a diplomatic conference, they were hosting a few friends.

Before they arrived, though, there was something far more important.

Stockings.

Neither Anakin or Ahsoka really understood where the concept came from. Ahsoka had been the one to suggest them. Anakin had never really had a stocking. Tatooine hadn’t observed any day of rest and giving, or at least Watto had ignored it. Ahsoka, as an initiate, had believed, for a few years, in the concept of Father Bacca, but had ultimately caught one of the temple staff sneaking into their dormitory with the presents.

It made little sense to place small, novelty gifts in a sleeve made using a stylised sock. It made them more fun, particularly when they were wrapping in brightly coloured paper, decorated with a variety of designs. In Ahsoka’s case, Anakin had gone for shillian ferns and plants for most of her gifts, with some wrapped using paper featuring the wildlife instead. Ahsoka had wrapped his presents using wrapping paper patterned with podracers and famous features from Podracing circuits.

The twins’ presents had been wrapped using lavender paper, with yellow tags for Luke, and red for Leia.

Only the twins benefited from stockings, though. Anakin had tried to convince Ahsoka to do him a stocking, if he did one for her, and been thoroughly tickled for his trouble.

The first thing they did, though, was simply to curl up together on the sofa in the lounge, and consume hot chocolate. Anakin had found a festive romantic film to watch, at least until both twins woke up.

One of the problems with Force-sensitive twins was that they always woke up at the same time. It wouldn’t be a case that Luke woke up, then woke Leia up by crying, or vice versa. They came to almost simultaneously. And then started calling. It wasn’t always crying, Anakin had noticed. They were calling for each other, and for attention from an adult. He could distinguish simply wanting attention from discomfort because it was communicated silently.

Given that they’d been asleep, the first order of business was to change both twins’ nappies, and insert them into their festive outfits for the day. Once that was completed, Ahsoka arrived with their bottled formula. Although they’d consulted on breast-feeding them, the clinician they’d visited had informed them it was a bad idea. Compared to human milk, togruta milk contained more protein, which caused a risk of bones becoming extremely brittle. Given their parentage, Anakin and Ahsoka had both decided that any such risk was a bad idea.

The first stage of preparing the twins for Christmas was required because of the extended sleep. Using the Force to seal his nose, a trick he’d learnt from staff in the temple nursery, Anakin quickly changed Luke, before handing him over to Ahsoka, then changing Leia, and taking her through into the lounge.

Each twin’s primary present was a cuddly wampa, roughly twice the size of their young owners. Luke had been bought a white arctic wampa, while Leia received a brown jungle wampa. Anakin had also taken some time imbuing a number of wooden blocks with the Force, so that they would each feel ‘different’ to one another. He’d split them into two piles of an equal number of blocks, then wrapped the piles. Ahsoka had created a similar gift, using rings of wood, each painted in a primary colour.

Once the twins had their presents, which also included a selection of babygrows, Anakin and Ahsoka turned on their film again, watching the festive rom-com all the way through, before settling down for a snuggle, with festive music in the background. Leia had drowsed off almost immediately in the arms of her Wampa, while Luke was snuggled between Anakin and Ahsoka.

Anakin came out of the peaceful meditation an hour or so later, when he felt Padmé approaching in her aircar, along with the ever-dependable Typho. Her presents sat under the tree, wrapped with paper featuring nabooan landmarks and vistas.  

Ahsoka was always nervous when Padmé was around. It wasn’t fear of what she would say or do, but the knowledge that she was raising the human’s children, alongside their father.  There was always a slight tension between them that Ahsoka assumed would always be there. It was particularly pronounced in moments of play, as Padmé watched Ahsoka teasing one of the twins with a lekku tip or a brightly coloured toy. Only a Jedi would even have suspected it, and Anakin suspected Padmé didn’t even know of her feelings.

When she stepped through the door, she received an armful of Luke almost immediately. She relaxed almost imperceptibly, fending off a grab for a lock of hair that came within grabbing distance of the child. Typho handed her a hairband, which she used to gather her hair, handing Luke very briefly to Ahsoka. She took her son back gratefully, and proceeded to the living room and a chaste kiss from Anakin.

Her former boyfriend had bought her a hologlobe, containing a selection of her favourite landscapes from Naboo, along with a framed representation of Shaak footprints in a warm pink marble. In exchange, Padmé had bought Ahsoka what looked suspiciously like a leash and collar, sized for Anakin, along with a riding crop. The attached note suggested they were ‘probably the only way to control him while shopping in the vicinity of a speeder dealership.’ Anakin received a set of tools designed for repairing circuitry in droids, along with a set of magnifying lenses.

Just after they’d finished opening their presents to each other, there was another knock on the door. Shaak-Ti and Obi-wan entered almost as soon as Anakin opened the door, with Anakin wrapping an arm around his former master. Meanwhile, Ahsoka was quickly engulfed by Shaak-Ti, in an environment where she could be open for once, being hugged, along with Luke, in a decidedly matriarchal fashion. Luke quickly interrupted the hug by sharply tugging on one of Shaak-Ti’s lekku, which earnt him a scolding, but gentle tap on the head.

Leia picked roughly that moment to wake up, drawing Padmé almost instinctively to her. Scooping her daughter out of the arms of a brown wampa, she looked around the nursery, seeing a selection of simple decorations surrounding them. The sight reminded her of her own childhood for a few moments, before she carried a now content Leia through into the main room. The sight that greeted her took her not entirely by surprise. Anakin appeared to have found a pair of starfighters designed for children, which were zooming around the room. Ahsoka had passed Luke to Shaak-Ti, and was furiously dogfighting with him, in a game that appeared to have no scoring system, and pose a threat to anyone standing in the middle of the room.

Somehow, the sight seemed to sum up what had become her family. Anakin and Ahsoka, the young, well-matched mischief makers and enthusiasts for life. Obi-wan and Shaak-Ti, older, more settled, with an air that suggested neither of them were immune to finger painting. Luke and Leia, her children and Anakin’s, too young to do more than appreciate the brightly coloured objects moving around, with a future that promised to equal their parents. Typho was standing in the corner, ostensibly watching the door and windows, although she could tell he was more interested in the impromptu dogfight. 

She could smell the turkey in the oven. But right now, she was surrounded by laughter and an undeniable sense that this was her family. And that mattered more than anything else in the galaxy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annoyingly, although I have a lot of plans for this story, I haven't been able to find much time to write lately. However, I hope this Lifeday chapter at least makes up for it a little, as it will take place a few months after the last chapter, with some very familiar faces making their first appearance. I'd also like to offer my own thoughts and prayers to Carrie Fisher, and to the family and dog that clearly loved her and her mother. 2016 saved its worst for last. She is one with the Force and the Force is with her.


	31. The Yavin Affair: Preparing for Action

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a long time without any input. I’ve been working on this for a while, but couldn’t quite get it finished between spurts of coursework and studying. I know where I want to take the story from here, and I should be able to get a few more chapters produced again in the near future.

Between the turbolift and the meeting room, Anakin was entirely unsurprised to run into an old friend.

"A'Sharad." He said, taking the other human's proffered hand and shaking it.

"Anakin." A'Sharad Hett replied. "How are things with you? I've been reading through the final draft of your proposals."

"I was hoping for a few weeks of peace." Anakin commented. "Squabbling over the refresher, relaxing in bed, tinkering with Artoo, that sort of thing. Instead, I'm being dragged off to look for a rogue Jedi."

"The Tyris situation?"

Anakin nodded. "We need to stop him before he starts a war." He said.

"I wish I could help." Hett responded. "I'm being deployed to Tatooine. We're getting reports of another range war breaking out, and they want me to head it off at the pass."

"Do you think you can manage it?" Anakin asked. "It isn't usually straightforward."

"I'm taking a couple of sentinels with me to investigate things, while I go and stop the raiding." Hett explained. "I'm the only man in the order who can talk to the sand people easily. I'm leaving investigation to the experts."

Anakin nodded. "I need to go." He said. "I'll drop by when you get back."

Neither of them needed to say more.

Anakin continued towards the conference room. Before he got there, however, he ended up getting distracted. He was passing a shoal of initiates, just old enough that they were looking for masters, when he felt a tug on his belt. He looked down to see a small togruta tucking back into the shoal, with a 'I got away with it' sense to her aura. There was an amused giggle as she was suddenly hauled into the air by her ankle, and firmly shaken.

Anakin caught his commlink and wallet before they hit the floor.

"Master Skywalker, I'm so sorry." One of the herders said as she bustled up, having noticed the commotion. "Abernaa, we've talked about this before."

The togruta gave her a look that said she was anticipating another lecture. "Sorry, Master Skywalker." She said, quietly. "I din't think 'fore I acted."

Anakin finished tucking his various items back into his belt, holding a menacing gaze on the togruta. He estimated she was about nine, with extremely stubby montrals and lekku. "Why?" He asked.

"Erm... sorry, Master Skywalker." Abernaa replied.

Reluctantly, Anakin reached out through the force, investigating her motivations. All he found was a sense of mischief, rather than a serious attempt at theft.

"We only got her at five." The clan-warden said. "She's been trouble from the start. She kept on stealing, until Master Yoda gave her a warning."

"Hmm." Anakin said. He knew some of what Yoda was capable of. Particularly when he wasn't on the battlefield. There was a list on the council holonet archive of "Restaurants from which we are banned." Every time, it'd been Yoda. One incident report had involved 'Damage caused to six serving droids, wresting the corkscrew from the sommelier and refusing to give it back, attempting to use the flume in the children's play area and ordering something that isn't legally available on Coruscant, then causing a scene when we wouldn’t serve it anyway.' "Did that stop the stealing?"

"Yes." The warden said. "At least that we found out about."

"Why does she steal?" Anakin asked, looking at the togruta, who was trying to do a sit-up in mid-air.

"She came from a deprived background, Master Skywalker." He was told. "She initially came to the notice of the Order when she tried to steal from a Knight who was tracking a criminal."

"He realised she was force sensitive?"

"He did." She confirmed.

"Aye." The togruta confirmed. "'E did."

"And he decided we needed a thief?" Anakin queried.

"She works hard at her studies." The woman seemed to be surprised at finding herself sticking up for the togruta. "She's smart, and usually trustworthy."

"But she's still a thief." Anakin said.

"I said I were sorry." Abernaa interjected. Despite himself, Anakin was finding it hard to stay annoyed at her.

"You did. Right after you tried to walk off with my commlink."

"I were goin' ter give it back. I don't know what came over me." She protested, being lifted a bit further from the floor.

"Why?" Anakin asked.

"I... sorta giss I don't know, Master Skywalker." The togruta admitted. "I shouldn't 'ave."

There were two people vying to have their say in Anakin's head in that moment of time. The first was Anakin, whose position was no harm done. The other was Master Skywalker, who was busy pointing out that Jedi are not supposed to steal. The tie breaker came down to the fact that both of them liked mischief.

As a result, he dropped the togruta from about two feet up. Given that she had Jedi reflexes, she was able to make a textbook handstand landing, before springing to her feet.

"Abernaa..." Anakin said. "Your sentence is to make a serious effort to pass all of your initiate trials this year. You will also spend two hours a day assisting Knight Tano around her living quarters. I will then make a personal decision about your situation afterwards."

"Erm... Aye aye, Master Skywalker."

"Did you just...?" The staffer asked.

"If she makes an effort." Anakin replied. _I'm getting far too sensible._ He mused. _I guess that chair is stuffing my backside with tweed._ He shook his head, before heading straight for the briefing room. He deposited his flight bag on the small pile of other such bags, guarded by an astromech droid.

Inside, Obi-Wan sat at the head of the table. He recognised one of the Jedi, wearing distinctive green robes, as Master Neja Halcyon, of the Green Jedi conclave. The other three Jedi were a Camasii, a solid looking female Miralian, and a more familiar face.

"Knight Sundarter." Anakin said, nodding to the human male

"Master Skywalker." The man replied.

"How is Kira?"

"Helping train a group of initiates learn how to use a lightsaber safely."

Anakin grinned slightly. "I remember one who held her training saber by the blade and swung the hilt at people."

"You sparred with her?"

"Master Kenobi made sure I got the training to use my lightsaber effectively." Anakin said. "So, I linked up with a class of initiates who took great pleasure in hitting me with training sabers repeatedly."

"Every padawan and initiate goes through that stage." Obi-Wan commented. "It's all part of becoming a Jedi Knight."

"It helped me get better." Anakin commented wryly. "Being bludgeoned with a training saber encourages practice."

There were broad smiles around the table at that.

"Anakin, Obi-Wan said after a few moments. "May I introduce Knight Ylenic It'Kla," Obi-Wan gestured to the caamasi. "And his padawan Lianan Stelli."

Anakin nodded. "A pleasure." He said. He'd already started to worry about the way It'Kla's padawan was looking at him. It was a mixture of awe... and 'does he _like_ me' he was starting to realise was the norm for females between 12 and 40 meeting him for the first time. It wasn't something he worried about, but he also knew it could turn into more than a distant crush.

Obi-wan nodded, before beginning the briefing.

"Tyris disappeared early in the conflict, with two other Jedi. Given his... nature. We were concerned as to what was going on. "Obi-wan said. Our initial assumption, that Tyris had absconded with a pair of Jedi in order to consume them, was disproved. It appears that Tyris had come into possession of documents that even the Order believed lost, and become disillusioned.  That said, we suspect it was at the end of a slope, rather than the start of it. They've disappeared, although there are suggestions they served Count Dooku at one point. The only link to them since are a of number museum break-ins, targeting early Jedi Order artefacts, and a number of what are believed to be Korribani artefacts. We can't link these to them conclusively, though."

"What's our in, Master?" Anakin asked.

"Seventy-six hours ago, Coruscant time, a transport was briefly detected in the Yavin system. The drive signature matches one known to have been able to be accessed by Kiloma Aksis, one of the other knights who disappeared with Tyris. We weren't able to get a locus on it, or launch an interception before it dropped off the scopes. We don't know if it was landing or departing."

"Do you think it was heading for Yavin IV?" Ylenic asked.

"I really hope it wasn't." Ob

 

i-wan said, with a sigh. "Potentially letting whatever is left of Exar Kun out into the galaxy would be enough to cause a major crisis."

"He was an ancient Sith?" Anakin asked.

"One of the most powerful in history. Nearly unmatched with the lightsaber, and incredibly strong in the Force. He bought the republic to his knees, almost singlehandedly. Unfortunately, one of his apprentices turned on him, and led the Republic to him. One way or another, Yavin IV was destroyed, and virtually cleansed of all life."

"But you think he might still be down there, as a spirit?" Anakin asked, with a shiver.

"Unfortunately, I do, Anakin." Obi-wan said.

"What's the plan, then?" Anakin asked.

"Travel to Yavin IV. Scan the planet from orbit, and investigate any possible sites where our objectives may have been operating. And stay out of any ruins unless absolutely necessary."

There were a number of nods, before the group headed for the hangar, collecting their luggage from the stack outside.


	32. Adventures on Coruscant: Zoo Trip Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has been suffering from a bad case of writer’s block for a while. I wrote the first chapters of a story, then realised that I couldn't finish it, simply because I couldn't find the thread of the tale. I've spent a while trying, but I don't want to leave the story on hiatus any longer. I'm breaking out a story I've had planned for a while, although the cast has changed slightly.
> 
> Abernaa is an OC, based on an RP character of mine. I'm trying to avoid her becoming a sue or an author's pet, but she's still a Jedi.
> 
> This is a rough overview of how the Yavin storyline would have gone, if I'd ever managed to write them.  
> Anakin and co arrive on Yavin IV, and set up camp  
> Their shuttle is sabotaged. They call for reinforcements  
> They start looking for whatever sabotaged their shuttle and find some old temples  
> One of the group is attacked and severely injured by a Sith Spirit  
> They regroup, and go looking for where the spirit came from.  
> They find the temple belonging to the spirit, and identify it as Exar Kun  
> Their reinforcements arrive, and the temple is vaporized from orbit  
> They return to Coruscant, where Ahsoka has taken Abernaa as her first padawan
> 
> Between the Christmas Special 2016 chapter and this chapter, roughly six standard years have passed. Abernaa has ended up as more of a daughter to Anakin than Ahsoka's padawan. Luke and Leia simply see her as their big sister. Abernaa has significantly improved her conduct since becoming a padawan, although she still maintains her accent. Luke and Leia regularly mimic it to annoy people.
> 
> The Jedi Order is in flux, although they are keeping the situation with the Far Outsiders to themselves. Rifts are forming within the ranks of the Jedi Order. Younger Jedi are marrying, and having children. Older Jedi, particularly from the more reactionary parts of the Order, are resisting the change. 
> 
> Anakin has become one of the mainstays of the Jedi Council, leading the 'reform' faction of the Order. Within the council chambers, there is no opposition. The High Council members have seen the results of the new way of doing things, and approve. Ahsoka has recovered most of her mobility, although her left leg remains eight percent weaker than her right under load. Her training of Abernaa has produced a feisty padawan, with a few rough edges, but nothing unusual for a fifteen-year-old padawan.

"Abernaa!" Ahsoka called. The younger togruta had been detailed to take both of the younger Skywalkers to the Coruscant Galactic Xenozoological park. She'd last been seen heading for her small padawan suite.

"Comin', Master." She responded. The togruta was shorter than Ahsoka had been at the same age, with red skin, and markings superficially similar to her master's, with her cheek markings extending further, linking up with a pair of rhombus shaped markings on her forehead. A small patch of white on her chin gave her something reassembling a little goatee. For the expedition at hand, she was wearing a bomber jacket, in black leather and a pair of dark blue cargo leggings. She also wore a rather unusual looking dark green beanie hat modified with cutouts for her somewhat stubby montrals.

Luke and Leia looked up at her with excitement. The two were dressed in similar street wear to their minder, giving the visual impression of a pair of children from a lower-class neighborhood out with a childminder. Luke wore a green puffer jacket, while Leia wore a sky blue jacket.

"Berna, there's a Nexu that's had cubs recently at the park to see!" Luke announced.

Leia followed up quickly. "And the Kybucks have had foals as well."

All of their various caregivers were very used to the way that the younger Skywalkers tended to speak, so it wasn't a surprise when they continued talking.

"And we want to go on..." Luke began

"...All of the rides. Particularly the..." Leia continued, seamlessly.

"...Fast ones." Luke finished. They'd been coordinating their sentences since they learnt to talk.

"I'm sure we cin make sure yer gits ter go on alla them rides." Abernaa responded, as she oversaw the donning of shoes and backpacks containing packed lunches. "We should even be able ter see sum animals frum Daff-oh-mere." She said, holding up a pamphlet she'd swiped from the temple canteen. "Says 'ere they've got a buncha the local wildlife, an' even a trained Rancor."

"Abernaa." Ahsoka said. "Why didn't you tell me about the rancor?"

"Cos I din't know I shoulda, Master." Abernaa replied.

"It means there's a Night Sister on Coruscant. Or a Dathomiri witch."

"An' that's bad, Master?" Abernaa asked.

"Yep. I'll let Skyguy know." Ahsoka replied, doing up Leia's shoes, before dislodging the giggling six-year-old from her neck. "You two behave, now. Do what Abernaa tells you. And tell me if she starts smoking or anything like that." There was a giggle from the small humans, and they linked hands, before Luke took Abernaa's hand, and they headed for the landing pad.

On the small pad assigned to the Skywalker quarters, there were a pair of sports speeders, along with a small, less sporty run around. The later was three metres long, painted a royal blue, with a top speed that only exceeded 75kph when conducting a gravity assisted dive. It was ideal for a togruta who'd only earnt her license to drive unsupervised a few months earlier.

It took a certain amount of mischief and giggling for the two young Skywalkers to be loaded into the back of the speeder, strapped into their car seats, and otherwise entertained. Luke was handed a small tablet, loaded with the adventures of Captain Plugwash, a children's cartoon about a fundamentally incompetent Nabooan pirate from their planetary age of sail. Leia was slightly less enthused by such media, preferring a cartoon about Jedi initiates, one of the more recent PR initiatives to have come out of what were now publicly referred to as the Skywalker reforms.

Abernaa loaded herself into the front of the speeder, before fastening her own restraint belt. she then set her headrest's built in speaker system to play an album from her favourite heavy metal band, Malika. The album wasn't that easy to understand, but it had a good sense of rhythm, and a nice beat.

Once the various take off procedures had been observed, Abernaa engaged the repulsorlifts, and the little speeder jumped into the air. Luke and Leia giggled furiously at the take-off, which would have earnt an errant learner a glare from an instructor. Kicking the drive into cruise mode, Abernaa leant back in her seat, following the flight paths suggested by her navcomp. It wasn't an interstellar model, but it helped to cope with Coruscanti traffic.

The speeder park at the zoo covered several acres, so it wasn't too hard to find a landing pad that was clear. A short stroll later, with Leia holding Abernaa's hand, and Luke walking independently a short distance away, they arrived at the entry point.

The entrance fee was waived when Abernaa flashed a small ID card she carried, something introduced for Jedi after the Order allowed them to wear plain clothes. Once they were inside, Luke latched onto Abernaa's free hand like a small, blond limpet, and began trying to tow her and Leia towards the Nexu enclosure. On her other side, Leia was busily trying to tow them towards the Kybuck habitat. The tiebreaker was Abernaa noticing a sign on the walkway. "Nexu encounters. 1200, 1430, 1700."

Â Checking her chrono, she confirmed that there was enough time to make the 1200 session, and set off at a trot that both of her charges could keep up with quite happily. The session was being held in the nexu house, which had an area to allow guests to meet the nexu.

Although the usual school of thought was that natural behaviours were better, the Coruscant Zoo had accepted that guests would like to meet the animals. As nexu were trainable, they'd been socialised from a young age. As a result, they were allowed to be curious about humans, non-humans, and what they smelt like. The cubs had adopted their parent's behaviour, and had been allowed to join them for the first time a week previously.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor, along with a mob of small children, Luke and Leia stroked the adult nexu, which seemed, possibly as a result of an unintentional selective breeding program, to enjoy it. The cubs wandered through as well, small balls of fluff, although they had six eyes and bald tails. One of them made a beeline straight for Luke and Leia, before climbing into their laps, rolling onto its stomach, and just gazed upwards with a small, content sound as they began stroking it. The mother approached, sniffed, and then strolled away, with a mien that suggested that the cub was fine.

One of the keepers came over to Abernaa, who was in a separate adults' section, and took her aside slightly. She noticed that he was wearing a holobadge with "D. Attenborough, Head Keeper, Nexu" written on it.

"I'm guessing they're not your kids." He said, with a smile. "Little surprised they aren't wearing robes, though, given the way the nexu responded to them."

"They ain't, cos they needs ter be kids." Abernaa responded politely.

"You might want to ask permission for them to take that little one home." He said. "He's one of the sensitive pair from his litter. The other adopted a padawan last week on his first public outing."

"How'd yer mean?" Abernaa asked, curiously.

"About fifteen, twenty years ago, the nexu were domesticated enough for this sort of interaction to take place almost unsupervised." The keeper explained. Behind him, the adult male nexu was lying on the floor, capsized, and clearly enjoying the attention from a group of children. "A few years later, they started to occasionally 'adopt' small children. Most of the time, they were wearing Jedi robes, and visiting with their masters."

Abernaa nodded politely.

"Well, these days, you get a couple in every litter who adopt someone. They won't want to leave them, and they'll pine for their company, certainly while they're cubs."

It seemed to explain the small number of domesticated nexu that had started to roam the temple, looking for initiates. Most of the time, it was to cadge food, attention, or occasionally both at once. The rest of the time, they just wanted to have someone nearby. It was utterly bizarre behaviour for an apex predator, under normal circumstances.

" 'Ow did it start 'appinin'?" Abernaa asked.

"At a guess, it was when we got their domestication to a certain point. There were some slight changes in brain structure. Nothing macroscopic, but in the central cortices and frontal lobes, there are a few structures that seem to have formed independently. There's been some theses on the matter."

"Do we need ter git a bed fer it or anythin'?" Abernaa asked, keeping an eye on the two children in her care, who now had a nexu cub sitting on Luke's head, claws velveted, and looking very pleased with itself. Knowing what was about to happen as soon as it moved, Abernaa shot a short message at Luke, using force Telepathy. "Do not levitate the bleedin' nexu in the middle of the 'all."

Then she sat back, watching as it inevitably found Luke's lunchbox in his rucksack, and then fell off his head, landing on its feet, and decided that wrestling was the sport of the day.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka was reading a report on various pirate groups operating in the mid core when Anakin returned home, holding a small datacase in one hand, and a small bag of shopping in the other.

"Where are the kids?" He asked, looking around nervously, expecting an ambuscade.

"Out at the zoo with Abernaa, getting worn out rather thoroughly." Ahsoka replied.

"Is that so?" Anakin asked, with a different tone in his voice.

"It is, Skyguy." Ahsoka said with a grin. Anakin had been quite impressed by the way her montrals and lekku had grown. They were both significantly longer than they'd been when he fell in love with her. Her montrals now extended a foot above the crown of her head, and her lekku went all the way down to her waist. Everything about her had matured, in all of the right ways.

Once Ahsoka was standing, Anakin was quick to ensure she found herself being hugged and kissed rather thoroughly. Other than her montrals and lekku, Ahsoka hadn't physically changed that much. She was still almost completely lithe muscle, overlaid with the bare minimum of body fat. The years had added a bit more curve to her body, but nothing fundamental.

It wasn't long before Anakin scooped a giggling Ahsoka off of her feet, and delivered her to their bedroom. He could feel exactly what was needed, through their bond, and ensured that he delivered.

A couple of hours later, Ahsoka's commlink went.

"Hi, Master." Abernaa said when she picked it up. "You might want ter let Skyboss know that 'e needs ter pick up a bed sized fer a nexu if 'es still at that council meetin'. The twins 'as sorta bin adopted by one of the nexu cubs frum the zoo." As it was on speakerphone, Anakin tensed slightly at the mention of nexu. "They're getting us a lead and a collar fer it. They'll look after it while we enjoys the rest of the zoo, an' we'll be bringin' it 'ome wi' us."

"Abernaa." Ahsoka said. "You're saying one of the Nexu has bonded with the kids."

"Aye."

"Is that definitive."

There was a pause. "Seems ter be. All it's thinkin' 'bout is Luke an' Leia. Wants 'em ter groom it."

Anakin began chuckling slightly. "We'll get something arranged." He said. "Hopefully the kybucks will behave themselves."

"I sorta doubt it, Skyguy. They's right naughty buggers when there's food in the offin'. Particularly crisps an' the like."

"Enjoy yourself." Anakin said, before ending the call.

"Well. I was hoping for a puppy or a kitten. A nexu should be fine, though." Anakin said with a smile.

"It'll be something for them to train." Ahsoka pointed out. "And it'll be well behaved. None of the temple nexu have ever done anything worse than steal someone's lunch. Or their trousers."

Anakin's response was to snuggle a little bit closer.

"Padmé will have a fit about them having a nexu after the last time she met one." He commented, and wrapped an arm under Ahsoka.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The kybucks didn't fail to disappoint. One particularly devious specimen managed to make off with an entire bag of crisps. The bag was rather quickly recovered by Abernaa, who decided that an unsubtle use of telekinesis was safer than a kybuck binging on cheese and onion crisps.

Several hours of viewing the various animals followed. Abernaa steered clear of the Dathomir exhibition for a number of reasons, not least of which was the (supposedly) covert Jedi watching it. By the end of it, Luke and Leia were tired enough that they didn't protest going home, with a small nexu proudly leading the way. It seemed to take an unmistakable pride in leading the way, and being the lead explorer already.

The small group had just returned to their vehicle when a larger speeder put down next to it, blocking line of sight from the entrance to the zoo.

Abernaa's draw wasn't quick enough, and her hand was nowhere near her lightsaber, concealed under several layers of clothing, when the side of the other speeder rolled up. Multiple riot guns were pointed at them and she raised her hands slowly. She was grabbed, before her arms were twisted behind her back and secured there, pointing in opposite directions, one above the other. The cuffs were connected using a hinge, which meant that her hands were going to stay where they were until the restraints were unlocked. Luke and Leia's hands had also twitched towards their jackets, each of which contained a concealed training lightsaber, before they froze at the sight of the riot guns. Without conscious thought, Leia released the nexu cub's lead, which resulted in the animal bolting, missed by a single stun blast before it darted between a row of parked speeders.

Rather curiously, her captors weren't using stun cuffs, magnacuffs or force-resistant restraints. They were using mechanical binders, and hadn't bothered to frisk their victims. A simple ratchet secured the metal loops, ensuring that she couldn't withdraw her hands and that they remained closed. They didn't bother restraining Luke and Leia, hauling them aboard bodily. All three were pushed into a cage, made using what looked like industrial fencing, and the door was slammed shut and locked.

Given the scenario, Abernaa decided to cooperate. After all, if they wanted to take an armed Jedi into the centre of their operation, who was she to naysay them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter on this story in a very long time, thanks to RL, and the aforementioned writers block. As usual, feedback and comments are extremely welcome.


	33. Adventures on Coruscant: Zoo Trip Part Two

To Abernaa’s surprise, there was no attempt to confiscate her commlink during the flight. Instead, the three were left to their own devices. Luke initially attempted to disassemble the wall, before discovering that there were no points of attack. Leia fired a few volleys of invective towards the driver in her best street accent, but was ignored.

The goons, to Abernaa’s mind, struck her as fairly typical low-rent criminals, dressed in nondescript dark clothing. Although they’d acquired some riot guns from somewhere, the rest of their equipment was low grade. Their facial coverings were limited to masks made of fabric, and tinted glareshades. The result was almost comical, although they clearly had an effective MO for abduction. Her only real question was if this was a ransom scam, or if the consequences would include a shock collar and skimpy clothing instead. She didn’t say as much to the twins. After being ignored, Leia had curled up in a corner, while Luke was attempting to prise open a gap between two of the panels of the van wall.

Abruptly, there was a clatter from the door, before one of the goons stormed inside. With a growl of anger, he knocked Luke flying with a backhanded slap, and grabbed his multitool before it hit the floor. 

Awkwardly, given that she was securely handcuffed in a moving van, Abernaa moved over to Luke, and knelt next to him, using the Force to assess his injuries. Other than a large bruise and his pride, Luke was entirely uninjured, as far as she could tell with the Force.

 _I wonder…_ she thought. _They haven’t taken our commlinks, which means that they have a way of blocking them from transmitting. Given that they took badly to Luke attempting to damage the shell of their van… are they relying on a faraday cage?_

Abernaa shook her head. _We’re not going to escape from a moving vehicle, no matter what we do. If we get unloaded at the spaceport, I’ll act. Otherwise... this is going to get boring._

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

About an hour after Abernaa should have returned, Ahsoka’s commlink went off, with the code that she’d assigned to government commcodes.

“Knight Tano Skywalker speaking.” She said, pushing down an intuition of dread. It wasn’t the first time an overdue Abernaa had been followed by an official holocall. Usually, it meant bailing her out of custody for a minor offence, which gave her a whole new insight into Anakin’s relationship with Obi-Wan.

“Knight Tano Skywalker, I’m calling from the Coruscant Galactic Xenozoological Park. A vehicle registered to yourself has been left in our parking area.” The man paused. “As it was left unsecured with the key nearby on the floor, we’ve already called the CSF.”

Being a Jedi gave Ashoka enough control over fundamental processes that she didn’t collapse into a chair. Instead, she replied. “Thank you… Mr Blessed. I’ll try to get there as soon as possible.” Ending the holocall, she didn’t waste any more time.

“Skyguy!” She called, not bothering to conceal the panic in her voice.

Anakin exited his small office at a speed that left Ahsoka wondering if the laws of relativity had been rescinded. “Snips?” he asked, his voice deadly. “What’s happened?”

“Abernaa’s airspeeder has been left unattended at the zoo, with the keys dropped nearby.” Ahsoka replied, her voice low and serious.

“Stang.” Anakin muttered. He was already going through the procedures he needed to follow. The department of social services had given him a short list of circumstantial procedures, which he’d actually made an effort to memorise.

 _Step one: Call Padm_ _é_

_Step two Call the CSF._

“Snips, you go down to the Zoo, and see what’s going on.” Anakin said, his heart pounding. “I’m going to ring Padmé.”

Ahsoka paused for a few seconds, before reacting. “Gotcha.” She replied, her own voice only remaining steady through willpower and battlefield experience.

Then she dashed through into their hallway, before throwing on her outer robes. She remembered something from her own padawanship, and grabbed her commlink as she hurried down the corridor to the bay where her airspeeder was parked.

Flipping open the clamshell device, she opened the code directory, and selected the third entry down, the Temple Switchboard. She had no idea why the primary holocommunications facility of the Jedi Order was known as the switchboard. She assumed it was an archaism that had never been updated.

It answered on the second dial tone as always.

“Jedi Temple Switchboard, how can I help you, Knight Tano Skywalker?” it was an automated voice, and at the same time comforting and heart-breaking. Something inside her would have given almost anything in that moment to be answered by an organic call handler, rather than the droid intelligence.

There were only two words she needed to say.

“Condition Demeter. I repeat, Condition Demeter.”

“Confirming Condition Demeter.” The droid said, emotionlessly. “I am informing the CSF and Sentinels that Padawan Abernaa Ni has been abducted.”

Ahsoka almost broke down as she severed the connection. The last word made the situation crash home. It’d finally happened.

It gave her an insight into how Anakin must have felt, virtually every time his teenage padawan disappeared or was held captive.

She’d gotten out of those situations through luck, skill with the Force, and her Master’s abilities.

She just had to hope that those would be equally relevant to Abernaa, and Luke and Leia.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Before Anakin got to his commlink, it went off.

The Nabooan planetary anthem rolled out through his quarters, as he willed his hand to accept the call.

“Anakin.” Padmé said as soon as he picked up the commlink. “What’s happened?”

“Padmé…” Anakin replied. “I only just found out that something had. I was just about to call you…”

“So, the CSF Special Branch officers got here before you even found out?” Padmé snapped, icily. “I’d have thought they’d have had to have talked to the father **_before_** visiting the estranged mother.”

“Angel…” Anakin said, the old endearment slipping out before he could help himself. Their relationship was that of close friends, even with the stress he knew Padmé was under watching her children being raised by another and their father. “I don’t suspect you of any involvement. It didn’t even cross my mind for a second.”

“Good.” Padmé’s voice was noticeably calmer than it had been a few moments before. “I wish things had been different, but…” Padmé didn’t finish the sentence. They’d never rowed, thrown things or fallen out. Anakin had gone one way, and Padmé another. Over the course of the Clone Wars, they’d just drifted apart. By the time Anakin had begun his relationship with Ahsoka, they’d been out of love for six months.

“I know.” Anakin replied, keeping his own voice level. “Where’s Typho?” he asked.

“Down at the Zoo.” Padmé replied. “He’s managed to get access. I assume Ahsoka will meet him there?”

“She’s already on her way.” Anakin replied. The friendship between the two was close, but both Jedi were aware of the brittleness deep down, almost beyond recognition, even for Jedi.

“Why aren’t you?” Padmé asked, with an edge she didn’t quite keep out of her words.

“Because I needed to call you. And because one Jedi War Hero is enough to drop on the CSF at a crime scene, even if Special Branch are leading the investigation.”

“I…” Padmé didn’t need to say anything else.

“We’ll get them back, Padmé.” Anakin said. “We’ll get them back.”

“Who…” she asked. “Was it them, or Ahsoka’s padawan they were after?” Padmé asked.

“We don’t know.” Anakin replied.

“Make sure they all come home.” Padmé said, more seriously.

Anakin nodded. Both of them knew that it wasn’t something he could remotely offer to guarantee.

“They will.” He replied, soberly.


	34. Adventures on Coruscant: Zoo Trip Part Three

When the van touched down, Abernaa glanced around the room as they were led out. Whatever it had started out as, the landing area was enclosed completely. Even inside it, the trained eyes of the togruta Jedi could make out several features that suggested jamming equipment.

To her astonishment, she was marched straight through to a small room, while the twins were led off in a separate direction. Without any care for her dignity, she was thoroughly measured, scanned and documented, and her commlink was abstracted from her pocket, along with her credchip. With the scans complete, she was roughly pushed through a doorway, and another scanner arch beyond it. With her hands cuffed behind her back, she barely regained her balance before she was caught by two of the goons waiting for her.

Somehow, they’d missed her lightsaber. It probably helped that the weapon was inside one of her boots, disguised as an ornamental decoration running up the calf. Luke and Leia’s were more straightforwardly disguised, within a flimsy plastic casing, and worn on their belts. To a casual observer, they were toy lightsaber hilts. Most such weapons were utterly useless, and would be overlooked. Particularly by the sort of criminal who didn’t seem too concerned about their prey biting back.

She was pushed into a chair, before a belt was wrapped around her shoulders, pinning her in place. They took a brief scan of her retina, before doing something on a machine. She held her breath, in case that was a link sliced into a databank that would reveal she was a Jedi.

It chirruped a couple of times, before an item that she instantly recognised emerged from the machine.

A shock collar.

Strapped to a chair, Abernaa wasn’t physically able to defend herself from the device, or prevent it being fastened around her neck. If she’d drawn on the Force, she could have turned it into a lethal projectile.

One of the thugs brandished the remote, briefly, before putting it down, clearly in view.

The togruta didn’t have to pretend the lump in her throat as she was hauled out of the chair, and down the hall. She was surprised, though, when she was led into what was clearly a cell-block.

Despite the scale of the operation, Abernaa could see flaws. Vents and ducts were accessible from within the main atrium. The cells themselves consisted of, if she was a judge, commercial door-fields, securing small rooms built from freight modules. To her surprise, the fields weren’t even opaque, giving her the chance to take a rough head count of the extent of the operation.

Most of the victims were rough sleepers, judging by their clothing, although a fair number were wearing well-worn, but clean garments. The majority of those were a wide range of non-human and near-human species. The group that seemed most common, not to her surprise, were teenage female twi’leks.

From another direction, Luke and Leia were led towards her, held roughly by an arm each. They were pushed into an unoccupied container, before her handcuffs were removed and she was pushed in after them. Jedi reflexes would have allowed her to recover in the time it took them to reactivate the forcefield, but she suppressed the instinct.

Then she scooped the twins into her lap, and just held them, resting her back against the side of the container. When she wanted out, the only question would be how she did it.

Although she suspected she’d want out very soon.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ahsoka’s airspeeder was significantly more powerful than her padawan’s. At cruise, and with her government issue traffic warning system active, she cut through the traffic at close to 400kph. Although it could have gone faster, speed wasn’t going to be an issue. Ultimately, investigations didn’t usually get colder because you weren’t touching the sound barrier.

Touching down outside the perimeter, her robes were almost enough to get her straight through, before she was challenged by a sergeant.

“Ma’am.” He said, deferentially. “Can I have your name for the log, please?”

“Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano Skywalker.” She replied.

“The Major is by the speeder, Ma’am.” The human male said, after a moment. “We’ve got scenes of crime checking it over carefully.”

“Thank you, sergeant.” Ahsoka replied.

She received a nod of the head, before the man turned back to his duty, allowing her to cross over to her padawan’s airspeeder.

The senior investigator, a female human, with dark hair and pale brown skin, wearing the insignia of a CSF major, was poring over a crime scene almost completely lacking in trace evidence. A set of keys had been marked with a yellow evidence marker, and a few nearby scuffs on the duracrete that appeared recent had also been marked.

“Knight Tano Skywalker.” The officer greeted her. “We think we’re dealing with an organised group.”

Ahsoka managed to resist an eye roll through years of training as a Jedi. The fact that they’d captured a Jedi padawan and two younglings without anything being noticed indicated that much.

“Unfortunately, that’s about all I can tell you.” she continued. “There are scuff marks that seem to indicate some sort of large speeder landed next to your padawan’s.”

Nearby, Ahsoka heard a sudden commotion, followed by a hollow sounding thump, as if someone had just headbutted the door of an airspeeder.

“CORPORAL!” the major yelled, achieving a fairly effective carrying bass. “STOP CHASING THAT NEXU AND OFFER IT YOUR LUNCH!” the woman took a deep breath. “And that’s the other thing that’s been complicating our scene. There’s a young nexu running around. It seems friendly enough, but it doesn’t want to be caught.”

“I think I can help.” Ahsoka replied. Crossing over, she could see the small feliniod watching what appeared to be a ham and cheese sandwich with a twitching tail.

Pointing her hand at the small creature, Ahsoka reached out with the Force, before smoothly lifting it off of its feet and away from anything it could use to kick off from and break her grip. There was a certain amount of squirming, several yowls, and then a sniff, as it got closer to her. There was what sounded like a happy chirrup, before it relaxed.

To her surprise, it then swarmed up around her shoulders on velveted feet, and wrapped itself around her neck.

It wasn’t a situation that would take a Bao-Durr Prize Winner in astrophysics to figure out. She remembered Anakin mentioning a nexu cub that had adopted the twins. Clearly, it hadn’t gone with them, wherever they’d gone.

Now all she had to do was find her padawan.

Reaching out with the Force, she was able to locate her padawan’s signature. It was still on Coruscant, but the sheer amount of interference from dozens of other life signatures between them prevented Ahsoka being able to even point a finger. If she’d been within a kilometre, yes. At whatever range she was at now…

The best she could manage was a 45-degree arc.

It was going to have to do.

Logging her coordinates and the rough direction on her datapad, Ahsoka asked questions for a few minutes. There were a number of witnesses, but all they’d seen was a speeder landing and then taking off. The colour varied from grey and black to dull shades of red, blue and green. The cab had been square, curved, angular or possibly a combination of several styles. Officers were dutifully noting down every description. Ahsoka suspected that the traffic monitoring system would be the tie-breaker.

With no real reason to linger, she clambered back into her airspeeder, and headed, using the autopilot, back to the temple.

The police would do their job. Her job was to help them find her padawan, and her two stepchildren.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

About three hours after Abernaa, Leia and Luke had been put into their cell, three meal trays were delivered using a dumbwaiter built into the wall of the cell. Abernaa automatically assessed the design, with a smile. It wasn’t something she’d have considered toddler-proof, even if the toddler didn’t have access to a Jedi multi-tool.

Opening the other heel compartment of her boots, Abernaa handed Luke a multi-tool, after checking for monitoring devices. Again, that basic precaution hadn’t been taken. With a grin that reminded her of Master Skywalker, Luke set to work.

There was no easy fix for her shock-collar, though. The device was clearly tamper-resistant, with every component encased by a layer of durasteel. With a bit of a grin, the togruta made a show of fiddling around under the shock collar for about ten minutes with a hairpin borrowed from Leia, before popping it off by sabotaging the lock, which she’d been targeting, using the Force. She jammed the hairpin into the workings of the lock. With luck, they’d think that, and a concealed multi-tool, had been all she needed to escape.

While she’d been fiddling with the collar, Luke had dismantled the dumbwaiter, and seemed well on the way to building a fully functional armoured car, complete with blaster weaponry, a repulsorlift and enough passenger stowage for the entire cast of a holodrama. Or at least a shell that might turn into one.

Abernaa pulled him away from the shell, before clambering through the exit, cautiously. When there was no immediate volley of blaster fire, she signalled the twins through, before scooping them up, and sticking to the smaller corridors. They were almost at the exit when an alarm klaxon began to sound.

“Ten bleedin’ minutes ter notice sumun ‘ad took a dumbwaiter apart…” Abernaa muttered. Then she sprinted towards the doors, not using Force Speed, but drawing on the Force to avert the build-up of lactic acid in her muscles and increase blood oxidation.

Just before she reached the doorway, two thugs stepped out of a guardroom, clearly reacting to the alarm sounding. Without them even having time to react, a burst of Force energy from each of the twins hit their power pack release switches. It wasn’t subtle, but it gave Abernaa enough time to streak between them, and out through the slowly closing street door, just before it slammed shut with a dull thud, clipping the heel of her left boot.

It was only seconds before it started to open again, and she began sprinting, realising that she didn’t have a plan, means of communication, or even her credchip.

Dodging blaster fire, she just sprinted down the street, ducking into alleyways, relying on the Force to help her avoid a dead end.

She’d been running for about two minutes when an arm whipped out from behind a bin, and wrapped itself around her neck. Another was clapped over her mouth, and she was hauled off her feet and behind the bin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, this is a longer gap than I’d have liked, but I appear to have found the thread of the story, and should be able to get updating again in the near future. Any feedback is welcomed and encouraged.  
> May the Force be with you, and may you all have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.


End file.
